Oltra: “I was surprised by the level of football in Cyprus”

Jose Luis Oltra decided in July to give free rein to her adventurous anxiety and said yes to the emerging AEK Larnaca from Cyprus. Although he has a prestigious CV on the bench, he has never set out to coach his team outside of Spain. 53 years and ‘papa’ doesn’t even know how to speak English. Pure entrepreneurial spirit.

“I have been here for three months and the balance is positive. I’m trying to get used to it, because everything is new to me. Going to Cyprus meant leaving my comfort zone because I came no family And he doesn’t know English. But now I conduct sessions completely in English and I also speak it in press conferences without a translator, although my level is still quite weak. I do private classes with a teacher and an online course, I’m taking my time here”explained Oltra, who was attending MD a few minutes before the game Cyprus-Greece last Saturday’s Nations League, with a Cypriot victory (1-0).

The Valencian leads the Larnaca club’s large Spanish entourage, with up to six players in its squad. They were Michael Gonzalez Y Angel Garcia and this year Pere Pons (Alavés), Ismael Casas (Málaga) and Oier Sanjurjo (Osasuna) landed on the island. In addition, they join Oltra on the coaching staff Frank Blasco as assistant coach, Marcos Chena and Norbert Callau as physical trainers, as well Xavi Roca as sports director -which was renewed until 2025-, and Santiago Carpintero as director of scouting.

The Oltra effect was immediate and AEK Larnaca had already gained some respect Europe for a short time with a technician who only this year began to discover the Old Continent after spending most of his career in Second and the team qualified for European League. After falling against Midtjylland in the penultimate qualifying round of the Champions League, they reached the group stage of the second continental competition after being eliminated Dnipro-1.

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“One of the reasons I came here was to play European competition. We did not qualify for the group stage of the Champions League match Midtjylland on penalties but in the Europa League we won one (against Dinamo Kyiv) and lost one (against Rennes). In the League it was difficult for us to start, because it is still difficult for us to change to play on Thursday and Sunday (it is ninth with one win, one draw and two losses after finishing second last year). But I am confident that the team will get stronger”, explained the Valencian coach. “In the league, we try to be more protagonists on the ball and in Europe shoot more than defense order because, although we try to have possession, there are teams with more talent”, points out the coach.

This is the third island where José Luis Oltra is training. In fact, the islands almost mark the cardinal and important points in their wanderings on the banks. At the westernmost point where he had trained so far, Tenerife, His first great success as a coach occurred in the promotion of the chicharrero club to First in 2009. And at the easternmost point, Cyprus, where it was taken out of our borders. As a midpoint, Majorca (courses 13-14).

“You see the islands attract me”, joked the technician. “Although not the same, there is a certain parallelism between the islands in terms of lifestyle, character… When I doubt the arrival or they don’t tell me. it’s like tenerife, which is very special for me in football and personally, although I have also been to Mallorca”, confessed Oltra, who achieved his other promotion to the First Division with Deportivo in 2011.

Like his native Valencia and Tenerife and Mallorca, he also enjoys hours and hours of sunshine in Larnaca, where, almost in October, summer remains strong with lows of 20 degrees and highs of over 30 The climate favors tourism in this city of more than 70,000 inhabitants, the third in Cyprus after Nicosia (200,000) and Limassol (154,000). Although located outside and away from the beach -where the crowd and history are concentrated in the church of San Lázaros and the medieval fortress-, the stadium AEK Arena It aims to be a center of interest and history in itself. The league domain corresponds to Apoel Nicosia (20 titles), Omonia Nicosia (16) and Anorthosis (13). Since its re-establishment in 1994 as a new club after the merger of EPA Larnaca and Pezoporikos Larnaca, AEK has never won the league.

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“AEK Larnaca is a proper, very serious and compliant club, with good facilities and many ways. For the contract I signed two years, but in a way that we can terminate without too much difficulty. I’m one of those trying to fulfill contracts, but football already knows the results of the rule. They didn’t set a specific goal for me, but it was a winning club want to grow up, He is not satisfied with being second in the Cypriot league or playing in the previous Champions League”, Oltra pointed out.

The Valencian is AEK’s seventh Spanish coach since 2014: Imanol Idiákez, Andoni Iraola, David Caneda, Joan Carrillo and also David Badia and David Catala, the two coaches before Oltra and continue to train in the Cypriot league, Badia in Akritas and Catalá in Apollon Limassol. A sum of 16 Spanish players They also insisted on Protathlima Cyta, with the former Azulgrana and the former Espanyolista Oier Olazabal as another of the highlights, signed this summer by Pafos.

“Spanish coaches are in fashion, we are ready people and players like Pere Pons and Oier are very important. But more than that, Cypriot football is striving to raise its level because they care more about the details and the fact that there are many nationalities also makes the league attractive. People will be surprised, because it is true that the Cypriot looks like a minor league but when you get into the competition you are surprised at the level there are, there are great players. There are teams like Omonia Nicosia who are in the Europa League like us and have made things difficult for Real society in the last match (2-1), the apollo which is in Conference, the Paphos, which now has foreign investors, Anorthosis too…”, highlights Oltra.

In a country where football is the national sport but the small population is a handicap -1.2 million-the quarterfinals of Apoel Nicosia by Ivan Jovanovic in the Champions League 11-12, where he eliminated Lyon in the round of 16 and had a bye against Real Madrid. the visit of Cristiano Ronaldo on the island with Omonia-United on October 6 gives hope, although the Cypriot team’s field had to close the west stand as punishment for throwing a water bottle in the match against Sheriff Tiraspol of September 8.

The problems of the Cypriot national team

The team, since the country’s independence in 1960, has never played a European Championship or a World Cup, although Cyprus will always have its fame in Spain: definitely in Larnaca, Xavier Clement dug his grave as a coach by the 3-2 received by Spain in the qualifying phase for Euro 2024 in Antonis Papadopoulos, the stadium of anorthosis, who certainly visit AEK this Saturday in the exciting Larnaca derby. Anorthosis was born in Famagusta -in the north of the island-, but the cities had to be changed after the Turkish invasion in 1974 which resulted in Turkish Republic of Northern Cypruswhich requires a passport to enter and is officially recognized only by Turkey.

The Cypriot team, which with its victory over Greece on Saturday won a game after a year and a half, is suffering dichotomy of the league teams’ bet for foreign players: on the one hand it raises the level of the championship itself but on the other hand it blocks the advancement of native soccer players.

“I think what Cypriot footballers need is performance continuity one thing is difficult because we have many players from abroad and those from here do not have a competitive rhythm when they only play a little and then they accuse him in the national team. But I think the Cypriot player has more and more European mentality that grows and does not settle and I see that he can develop on the international scene”, assured José Luis Oltra.

The skilled wings Marinos Tzionis -21 years old and in Kansas City of the MLS-, and Loizos -19 years old and at Omonia Nicosia-, monopolizes part of future expectations while Salernitana’s smart attacking midfielder, Grigoris Kastanos (24 years old) is the great current reference of a green Cypriot football still but eager to expand. The bold and distinguished José Luis Oltra is ready and committed to channeling that desire into the ambitious AEK Larnaca. New life for Oltra and, why not, for Cyprus.