Reina dreams to re-shape Villarreal as club turns 100

Pepe Reina

Pepe Reina has represented some of Europe’s most iconic clubs over the past two decades but there was always one the former Spain goalkeeper longed to return “home” to one day.

Reina’s second spell at Villarreal began 20 years after he first pulled on the gloves for El Submarino Amarillo – the Yellow Submarine – but while the 40-year-old jokes his hair may have changed slightly since then, his passion has not.

“It is like a dream come true because since I left I have been thinking about this many times every year,” says Reina, who, after joining in the summer with the intention of retiring at the club, has become first-choice since Geronimo Rulli was signed by Ajax in January.

“What I am doing is recovering the feelings I didn’t have from a personal perspective in recent years and that is very important – being able to retire, being absolutely happy with that feeling of belonging to the team.”

Reina first joined from Barcelona in 2002 and helped Villarreal qualify for the Champions League for the first time in 2005 before leaving for Liverpool, where he stayed until 2014.

He won silverware with the Reds as well as at Napoli and Bayern Munich and was also part of Spain’s World Cup and European Championship-winning squads, before representing AC Milan, Aston Villa and Lazio.

Lots has changed for Villarreal in that time, too.They reached the Champions League semi-finals after Reina left with a team that boasted Marcos Senna, Juan Roman Riquelme, Diego Forlan and Juan Pablo Sorin, bounced back from relegation in 2012 and beat Manchester United to win the Europa League in 2021.

“It was a small club in those days and I had, let’s say, more ambitious, competitive goals in mind,” says Reina. “But over the years both of us