If we can solve our financial problems, we can be one of the best

Alhassane Keita is used to winning medals. In his five years at FC Zurich he finished one season as the league’s leading goalscorer, bagged a couple of championships, and the Swiss Cup. Likewise in his two seasons at Al Ittihad in Saudi Arabia, before finally joining Mallorca, he picked up another championship medal. Now Keita is looking at a return to European football with the Balearic Islanders.

“It’s very important for Mallorca to be back in Europe,” says Keita.

“It’s a very very long time now since we have been there. So on the one hand our league position makes our fans really happy but because of the situation that the club is in, it makes us all very sad.”

Keita is of course referring to a financial crisis which has hit Real Mallorca hard. The club may only have debts amounting to over £34.3 million, which is significantly less than many others, but Mallorca is not a club with assets. Money is owed everywhere and as a result the owners have taken the first steps to put Mallorca into administration, effectively knocking itself out of playing European football next season, under UEFA regulations.

“If that should happen,” Keita sighs, “imagine how discouraging that is going to be for the players. You play for the whole year, you qualify for the Champions League or Europe and then something like this happens. It’s going to be very very ugly. I don’t know the full extent of the financial standing of the club but we are all hopeful that by June or July everything will be okay.”

Keita pauses as though in deep thought and then suddenly continues, “The worst scenario that would play on the players’ minds is that we go on vacation and then come back to be told we can’t play in the Champions League. That would be very bad for the players. So I am hoping they find a solution.”

That optimism is shared by the club owner Mateo Alemany and also the club president Tomeu Vidal, who are working hard to find a solution. Failure to play in Europe would ultimately mean that it’s the fans and the hard working players who would suffer. And they are the ones who have no responsibility for the mess that the club is in today.

I ask Keita how much the club’s crisis is sitting on the players’ minds.

“Look it’s not only football. In every job that anyone ever does, or when you have a contract you expect to be paid at the end of the month, end of the contract or whatever. So if you know there is a financial situation, then it’s going to play on your mind.”

Before I can interrupt with the obvious question, Keita waves me down and continues, “But this is not working on the players’ mind. We are very concentrated and we are winning games.”

So I ask Keita if not the players as a group, how does he feel about it individually. He admits that for him personally the crisis has had an impact.

“I have the situation in my mind. When I am playing, okay this is different. When I am on the pitch, I put all the problems outside, because this is football, this is the game. It’s after the game that’s when I know that there is something else happening around the club. But you have to be strong, keep your fingers crossed and keep fighting.”

Keita also assures me that the players are getting paid.

“Yeah, of course we are getting paid. We are paid. Every month we are getting our salary and we are getting it regularly. This situation I am sure will be fixed. We don’t have big financial problems so it will hopefully be resolved in time.”

Even if Mallorca can resolve their finances there is the added concern that there is no money for investment in the team to improve it. If they do get into Europe the squad will need to be reinforced. Keita admits that is a big concern and also finds it frustrating given the potential that he sees in Mallorca.

“You know at this moment this club is fighting. It’s going further, it’s going very far in the league. This is very good for the mentality, for the atmosphere of the club. If we can resolve the finances and invest, I believe this team can become first or second.”

Given that Barcelona and Real Madrid reign supreme by some distance it’s an incredibly ambitious statement to make, but Keita argues his point well.

“Look, we are very strong in our minds. Look at where we are with all the problems that we have had this season. When it’s football, we just play to win. Sure after the game different things come into your mind about the crisis. But if you take that out of your head and the club is okay financially then I am sure nest season we can go on to be one of the best teams in Spain.”

It’s ambitious talk from the 26-year-old from Guinea. But then Keita speaks like a champion because he has had the experience of winning like one, in every country he has played in so far except Spain.

If Mallorca can truly solve their finances, find an injection of cash to strengthen the squad and actually learn how to win away from home where they have been disastrous, then their emergence will be welcomed by the rest of the football world. In a sense Spain holds its breath to see if the Balearics are about to produce a fleet that could go out and conquer Europe, or whether Mallorca is just another sinking ship, taken down by a worldwide economic crisis.

from Goal.com