“The affection of the people is the reward for the work done”
09/11/2007 3:55:00
Pau Gasol talks about personal matters in an interview with ’Miradas al Exterior’, the magazine of the Spanish Foreign Office.
He defines himself as "a simple person, but with a great ambition, happy, nice and grateful" and remembers how when he was a child "I wasn’t tall enough and hadn’t skills for it", so maybe it was the fact of watching his father playing basketball which moved him to this sport. "It wasa progress, I became taller and when I was 18 it was the moment to be a professional player and leave apart the idea of continue with the studies of medicine", he describes about the beginning of his career.
The forward from Memphis says that he takes the good words with "humility and full of thanks". "The affection of the people is the reward for the work done during these years", recognizes Pau. "I’m lucky of doing what I do, being a known player and trying to be the best in what I do", he thinks. For him, "sometimes it is complicated being like the rest of the people, but I try it". For Pau, the most important is "never lose the ilussion, keep it alive with new goals".
Talking about his future, Pau don’t imagine himself finishing the studies of mecidine, because "I will be linked to the sport", although he says that "I will be worried about having a family, enjoy it and give them time and affection".
About his committment with the children and his figure as UNICEF extraordinary ambassador, Gasol says that it is "my heart which helps me to follow the line because it’s necessary and beautiful". For him, being an exemple to be followed is more a situation to be proud rather than to suffer because of the responsabilily. Pau, who tries to know the more he can about he situation in the African continent, thinks that "it is necessary a global effort to help those youngs and milions of people. For Pau, "it’s a pride representing my country in sport and othe rmatthers in a serious and affected way".
About his next goals, Pau wants "to play at my best level and whatever comes later will be the reward". Out of the courts, he wants to "take care of my health, being with my family and, in the future, create and take care of my own family".