beIN SPORTS

By David Cartlidge (@davidjaca)

It was just over five years ago to this date that Gabriel Fernández Arenas, better know as Gabi, was preparing for a game with different stakes entirely. While the Champions League final is the pinnacle for a footballer, in 2011 Gabi was face to face with the possible lowest ebb of his career.

Real Zaragoza were on the verge of losing their La Liga status, and it would be Gabi who turned hero in those final months of the season. His goals would resurrect the side from Aragon, who had almost become resigned to relegation, and in turn earn him a move back to Atletico Madrid. The club who once told him he wasn’t good enough.

It’s apt then that Gabi, for some the hardest working member of Atleti’s squad, would claw himself back to the Vicente Calderon. This is after all, the Atleti player that ran the most kilometers during their last Champions League run, and has repeated the feat this year. In fact, Gabi probably ran to Madrid when he heard Atleti wanted him back - and hasn’t stopped since. 

But there is more to Gabi’s game than running. Yes, he’s hard working, driven and plays with great intensity. But just as importantly he’s intelligent, tactically astute and given the mix of all these attributes together, Diego Simeone’s most important player on the field. Antoine Griezmann may be the star, Koke the boy from the cantera and Diego Godin the rock at the back, but Gabi is the one who best executes and professes the values of Simeone’s coaching. 

The shared a dressing room together previously, when a young Gabi was coming through the cantera and Simeone was in his second stint with he club after an adventure in Italy. It’s no surprise then that Simeone, so discreet in his actions behind the scenes, would trust Gabi with steering the revolution he would embark upon as coach.

“He’s our heart” stated Simeone, after Atleti’s remarkable La Liga triumph. Gabi regularly returns the praise, “Simeone is able to make us see what he believes, and give us the feeling that makes us carry this all out…” he stated about the 46-year-old coach.

Gabi has become a changed man since returning from Atleti, becoming the spine of the team primarily in the defensive output. He snaps at the heels of opponents, and shuts down any space that is left by his teammates. On the ball meanwhile he’s able to switch play, and deliver incisive passes into the final third. Goals are rare, just like they were at Zaragoza, but his intensity and feeling on the field makes his team feel as though they have an advantage. With Gabi there others have that security to play more liberally, and express themselves. 

His work is often discreet. Sometimes to really acknowledge Gabi you have to view a game back. Witness how he takes up those empty spaces, tracks those runs that nullify opponents’ flow. It’s understandable that in real time you may miss what he does, but to ignore his influence completely would be an error. Simeone’s work is of great magnitude and he deserves enormous credit, but without Gabi you wonder would change be so rapid. When Atleti went down in Lisbon, it was Gabi who rounded on his disconsolate teammates, "I made a circle in the middle of the field, and told them football would give them another chance if we kept working hard". And here they are in Milan.

Should Atleti prevail on Saturday evening, they will soon after head to their famous place of Neptuno's fountain to celebrate. Simeone will lead them there, but you can bet Gabi won’t be far behind. 

Running, of course…