Alberto Rivera Pizarro (Puertollano, 1978) is today a 46-year-old in great shape who participates in popular races as a pure hobby, but in another life, not so long ago, he was a professional footballer and a good one. So much so that he has played 282 First Division matches in different teams and maintains a prestigious record of precocity that no one has yet surpassed: at 17 years and 114 days old, he made his debut and scored a goal for the Real Madrid.
This happened at the Balaídos stadium against Celta de Vigo, on June 10, 1995. Rivera, a very elegant midfielder, was offered the alternative by Jorge Valdano. He entered the field for Amavisca in the 59th minute; Raúl, another 17-year-old, made it 0-1 in the 83rd minute and, on a rebound, made it 0-2 in the 87th minute. It was the penultimate day of the League and victory had been achieved. a relative value since the Whites had won the title the previous Saturday by beating Deportivo de la Coruña 2-1.
After retiring from football ten years ago, he started mountain biking. “I was falling every day and a teammate was telling me, ‘Either you change sports or you’re going to kill yourself one day.’” So he turned to athletics, caught the bug and was hooked. He’s not bad at it. Last year he completed the Santa Pola Half Marathon in 1:08:40 (21st place among more than 4,000 runners) and the Valencia Marathon in 2:25:32 (288th place among nearly 26,000 ).
“I try to do my best,” says the man who retains the competitive gene even if “I don’t consider brands.” “We are already reaching an age where the limit is closer,” he admits, before adding: “I like it, almost more than competition, preparation, being among friends.”
In May he attacked the 101 kilometers of Ronda in less than ten hours, at the end of September he first crossed the finish line of the half marathon in Puertollano, his homeland, and last Sunday in Albacete, also in the half marathon, he was vice-champion of Spain in his category (Master-45). He is currently preparing for “La Desértica”, a 70-kilometer mountain event, from Almería to Roquetas de Mar, scheduled for October 26. “People are surprised when they see me in a race,” says Rivera, who notices the “affection” in the places where he played: in Asturias for Sporting de Gijón, in Seville for Betis or in Valencia for the Levant.
During the 2001-2022 season, Rivera poses with the Real Madrid jersey alongside Iván Campo, Fernando Hierro and Raúl
“I am proud of my journey as a footballer. I managed to make my debut at Real Madrid, I spent 12 to 14 years in the first division, I played in very important teams, I played the Champions League with Betis…”, he lists. About his time in a locker room full of stars, he explains that “the mark of being at Real Madrid is the mental capacity Not everyone can handle it.” Maturity didn’t come to me as quickly as with Raúl or Guti who, in addition to quality, had enough personality to say that they were there because they deserved it. wait for no one.”
Rivera has experienced both sides of football: that of relegation to the Second Division with Levante, Betis and Sporting, and that of promotion to the First Division with Levante and Elche. And there was a key coach in his career: Manolo Preciado. “We formed a friendship at Levante. Then he called me to Sporting, after three years at Betis, and we knew how to keep our distance even though he was my friend. This is precisely why I pushed much harder and tried to lead by example. He actually came to my wedding. For me, it was the biggest loss on a sporting and personal level,” he explains about the coach who died in 2012.
With Lopera, president of Betis, when he was presented as a new player in 2005
In the meantime, from Olympique de Marseille, his only foreign club, he says he arrived “on loan with Alfonso Pérez in a difficult period, but it helped me a lot as an experience. Another culture. “I I really experienced what professional football was like outside of Real Madrid.”
He touched the Spanish team
He even talked about wearing the Spanish national team jersey. Luis Aragonés called him up in November 2005 to play against Slovakia in a World Cup qualifier in Germany the following summer. “The first leg took place at the Vicente Calderón, where an impressive deluge fell and Juanito and I remained in the stands, without dressing. We won 5-1 (with three goals from Luis García, one from Fernando Torres and another from Morientes),” he remembers.
While the second leg was well underway (1-1 draw, with a Villa goal), in Bratislava, “I warmed up at half-time, but I couldn’t make my debut. “It was an incredible two weeks and this team was the basis of the team that, years later, would become European and world champions.”
Rivera, who left home at the age of 14, returned to Puertollano when he hung up his boots at 36. He is now responsible for coordinating Calvo Sotelo’s grassroots football, from junior to junior. Its mission is that “children develop; a sports education like the one I received and so that they become better people. Among these hundreds of children from the quarry are his sons: Álvaro, 15 years old, and Alberto, 17 years old. “The important thing is that they play sports. Entering the professional world is super difficult,” concludes the one who knows that it is a long-distance race.
