Castro: Wearing the national team shirt is special

Real Betis forward, Ruben Castro is coming off the best season of his career, and is currently showing no signs of slowing down, scoring 14 goals in all competitions this season, and his hoping his performances have warranted a call up to the Spanish national team.

• By Tom Conn       Follow @TomConnISF
  

Spanish national team manager, Vicente del Bosque has yet to select his squad for the squad’s friendly against Uruguary in Doha on the 6^th of February and Castro stated to ‘El Pais’ that he is hoping to hear his name when the final squad is announced.

“I would love to go.  I live with the hope that I will get the call.  A long time ago I was a U-21 international, I can almost hardly remember.  It is something special to wear the national team shirt, but it has rained a lot since then.  Many things have happened and I am a very different, much more mature and refined player.

“To be called up is very difficult.  There is so much quality and sometimes I think that although I have scored 40 goals, I’m not going to go.  What no one can take from me is that great excitement that came from wearing the shirt.”

Castro then discussed Real Betis’ incredible success in La Liga this season, as they rest in a Champions League position after the first round of play.

“Without a doubt, the locker room has been the key.  We have come together as a group this year and was are hungry, wanting to do things in football, and now that I’m 31 years old, now is my time.  We are all moving forward as one and we have a great relationship with the manager and the fans.  There is an interesting mixture of youth and experience.  Moreover, Betis are doing well.  I’m happy here.

“Maybe [my success] comes down to the fact that for the first time in my career I am with a club for more than two years in a row, in the same city.  However, there is one important person through all of this, Pepe Mel.  Without his trust, I wouldn’t have been so successful.  He gave me the opportunity to stay here in a city like Sevilla and Real Betis.  I have now been here for three years.  If there is one person to thank, it’s Mel.

“We must continue to refine our aim, but scoring goals is something that occurs in the blood, we are born with it and have it.”