Alvaro Negredo insists he enjoyed his life in UAE
Before making a return to his homeland with relegation-battling Cadiz in 2020, the Spaniard lived in Dubai with his wife Amparo and two of his three children during his spell at Al-Nasr SC.
During a conference with Mena-based journalists, Negredo said: “Honestly, while it’s not up to me because people knew how I could perform, but maybe they didn’t believe in me.
“I don’t know if they weren’t happy with my performance or not, but I did well when I was playing in Al Nasr.
“We managed to win an important title after a long time, so I feel very good about what happened there. And, on both a sports level and a professional level, it’s a very good club.”
Negredo said he recognized the time was right to return to his homeland, adding: “For me, my body was asking me to continue to play at the very top level. I was very happy in Dubai, but as far as the league’s concerned, it’s not as strong or as competitive. My body wanted more and I wanted to really compete at the top level.
“Football is football everywhere, but it’s true I tried to help in lots of things [at Nasr], not just on the sports level. But I had a different idea about what football and competition is. I wanted to get more people to go watch the matches in the stadiums because it’s very important to have. That’s what should be worked on a lot better, because football is really for the fans; fans are very important.
“They should try and get the stands full because it’s a country that has a lot of expatriates and there’s a lot of people who like football. But they don’t really promote the football too much; I don’t know for what reason.”
However, the former Manchester City’s forward says he enjoyed his time at Emirates and would recommend a move to Dubai to any of his interested compatriots.
“It’s a different mindset; you have to go obviously with very clear ideas,” he said. “I’m not going to mislead anyone, but money is very important.
“However, what I really wanted was to have a new experience, to get to know a different culture. The people there really looked after me very affectionately and with a lot of respect: the fans, members of the team and the people at the club. I have nothing to complain about; as I said, I was very happy there.”
The 35-year-old scored his side’s winner against Barcelona in December. Asked which goal he enjoyed more, that or his memorable strike for Nasr against Shabab Al Ahli, the former Manchester City star said: “Goals are always important; for me, each goal is important. But it’s true, a goal that means you are going to win a title… and especially the way we did it, coming six seconds after the kick-off – well, it was crazy.
“But I was the captain of the team at the time and to lift up the trophy was a very important award.”
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