Borja: "The only disputes with the Indians are about spicy food"

You have gone to India to try a new experience in your football career. And there are six Spanish footballers at Atlético de Kolkata...

-Yes. We have six Spanish footballers, three Africans, one from France, one from the Czech Republic, and the rest are Indian. The latter group are always keeping a very close eye on us. We communicate with each other in English and they do everything possible to make sure we are at ease. The other day one of India’s most important festivals took place and they took us to help us understand their customs. The truth is that they do everything they can to make sure we feel comfortable.

You’ve been there for some time already. What is day-to-day life like in Kolkata? Is it very different to how you were living day-to-day in Spain?

—Basically, we have come here to play football. We live in a hotel, all of the players are in the hotel and from there we travel to the places where we have to play. We train at the ground, we do our gym work and we have a little bit of time to get to know a bit of the city. I have heard that Kolkata has four million registered residents, but another 14 [million] have entered the city. That’s a minimum figure, because others say it is between 18 million and 20 million. The distances are enormous and to go anywhere it takes at least an hour.

In a culture so different to ours I imagine that you might have a hard time with the food...

—It´s true. We try to eat the same food as the Indians, but with the spice we have problems. They say something is not very spicy, but for us it is very spicy. This is where we clash, because we tell them we want something that is not spicy at all. A little bit of spice is too much for us. But there are many surprising things here.

Tell me a story…

—You go out to eat at a nice restaurant and next to it are four dilapidated houses. Or you see nude children walking on the street. Everything is like a small chaos, but they understand everything inside that chaos. On another occasion you will see a luxury mall between houses that look like slums.

I don’t know if you are well aware of this, but in Spain there has been surprise that many footballers have gone to play in this competition and there was a lot of attention surrounding the Atlético de Kolkata match...

—Yes, we are aware of what has been published and what has been said because we’ve seen it on social media. It’s not just our families and friends who have been awaiting our matches. People are talking about it on Twitter and Facebook and that brings us joy. On the Internet there are news stories about the Indian Super League and we know that many people are watching our matches. It’s nice.

Until now everything has gone well for you during your time in Kolkata: you won your first match and you scored a good goal. How long is your contract with the Indian team?

—The truth is yes. There are two months of very intense competition, with many games in a row. There are semi-finals and a final and everyone wants to play in it. I have a contract with Atlético de Kolkata until December, which is just after the Super League finishes. Then we will see what happens.

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