Chus Mateo: “I only did my job, this is the team’s doing”

After Real Madrid won the EurLeaguse’s title by beating Olympiacos there was the team for the final press conference where Walter Tavares gave all the credits to his amazing coach Chus Mateo.

Edy Tavares was the first one who was addressing to the press and he was explaining to all attendant that Real won because of the coach Chus Mateo.

“I don’t know how to describe everything. There are a lot of emotions and only think that I can do is to congratulate this men next to me (Chus Mateo) because he suffered more than us to try to put everything together, to play together, to fight for this club. I think all the credits goes to him. I think for every coach and player first year in one club is very hard and especially in Real Madrid where is super hard to be a coach. I want to congratulate him, we are here because of him. He believed in us. The people from the outside didn’t believe in us, didn’t believe in him, that he could do it. But he has so much confidence in himself, and what he can bring to the table, what he can put us through. And I think he deserves it. You guys (the media) should apologize to him because there was a lot of criticism, and a lot of doubt on him. I always see everybody names a lot of coaches of different teams but never him. They only mention Madrid. But Madrid has a boss. He is the boss, so we’ve got to mention Madrid and him every time”, and Tavares even reduced Mateo to tears as he continued, arguing that his coach should receive much more recognition.

“All the credit for him because without him, we wouldn’t be here. He was the one who gave us belief, he believed in us from August. He deserves it more than anybody because he’s one of the best people I’ve ever met in my life. You should give him all the credit because we’ve got so many alphas on the team and you’ve got to manage everybody, so he deserves everything.”

After Walter Tavares finished his part at the press conference, the hero of the season took his turn. It was time for coach Mateo to summarize this EuroLeague season.

“We had to many ups and downs during the season and for us it was a very tough season. But it was very happy ending with this trophy. I can say that I am very proud of this period, of this guys, because they kept togetherness when the thing were going bad. They always believed they can win. They never surrendered. When something happened to the team, injuries or losses the team joined more and more. And when things was getting worse we fought even more. We were fighting together and even in the last game we were able to beat basketball machine like Olympiacos.”

After winning EuroLeague and physical trophy, the same evening Chus Mateo won another trophy – the full trust of one of his best players, Edy Tavares, who only praised his coach’s accomplishment.

“There are two trophies, exactly two trophies. It was good to listen what Edy thinks about you. We kept the team together, we believed together, like family. It seems like a usual phrase, but it is true. We kept believing together. We had a very tough path until this moment and we were able to fight until the end” said coach who continued talk about Tavares.

“Edy is the super class and one very good person and it is also good what is happening to him.”