Exclusive Interview: Atletico Madrid's Cleber Santana

When you first meet Cleber Santana you wonder why he isn't a Hollywood film star, instead of a player in a struggling Atletico Madrid side. His broody good looks and tall muscular frame mark him out as the classic modern day footballer.

Yet there is nothing showy about him at all. In fact, the 28-year-old has a distinctive quality. If you ask Santana- a question, he treats it in such a serious manner, it wouldn't be a surprise if he suddenly dashed off to consult Wikipedia before racing back with the answer. And such is his concentration, that it's hard to do anything other than mirror the total commitment he shows.

And this is pretty much how he likes to play his football too. So it must be difficult for a player who takes his game so seriously to be in a team floundering in the relegation zone, flirting with oblivion like it was a weekend away trip. This must be even harder to take when the bragging rights of a proud footballing city are up for grabs. Oh yes, the derby is back in town!

Saturday's clash marks that time of the year when the capital city splits right down the middle. Wander over to the south west and you are into the area of the Vicente Calderon, fans will shout at you to come into the bars and tell you that Atletico are the club of ordinary people. They are the team of the grafters, the working classes, the everyday people. Atleti fans don't feel that they are the poor relations of their more illustrious neighbours further up north, because they believe they experience the real world. With Atletico, incredible highs are followed by horrible lows.

Real on the other hand are royal. They are the aristocrats with all the money and superstar players. They lie second in La Liga and go to the Calderon not having lost to Atletico in a decade.

But Cleber says this doesn't worry him and his team will take heart from their performance against Chelsea in midweek;

"We know we have a good team but, at the moment, things just aren't working out for us. But against a great team like Chelsea, we had a good game and things went well, we just couldn't get the three points. I believe, though, that we have to take the positives out of that game," he stated.
 
"The game here on Saturday is a little more complicated, a little more difficult, but we hope to get on top and to secure the three points."

Fifteen points already separate the two teams, after just nine games of the season. The boat has been rocked so much this season that Abel Resino was dumped into the ocean of sacked coaches two weeks ago and Quique Sanchez Flores is the latest new boss. And Cleber has already been taken in by his training style.

"For example," he says, with the air of a man about to say something very important.

"When in training we don't have the ball, he still expects us to play as a team and when we do have the ball, then he likes us to play it. I think this is working out well. Tactically, we have a method of playing and we hope that everyday things keep improving," he continued.

"Quique has only been here eight or nine days and he has been working hard and hopefully this will carry on like this."

It's a great testimony to Quique Sanchez Flores that his players are already convinced by his methods but the players also have to learn to adapt, according to Cleber.

"We have to pick up the new things as quickly as possible, we can't afford to settle in for three or four weeks. We have to assimilate things well in training and put them into practice in games."
 
Both teams go into the derby on the back of big games in midweek in the Champions League. Both sides drew their game but while the point keeps Real Madrid going, Atletico's draw means they have been knocked out. Los Merengues, of course, travelled to Milan for their midweek match, while Atletico stayed in Madrid, but the Brazilian denies that this means his team will have an advantage in terms of being less fatigued when they meet.

"No, I don't think so," he smiles.

"There is time. Look it's at least three days before the game is played and then it's on Saturday at 10 pm, I believe that is plenty of time for all of us to rest. We have to rest but also work hard, so that we can ensure that things go well for us on Saturday."

Getting that win over their arch rivals at the Calderon, where Atletico last beat Real in La Liga in June 1999, would be a perfect way for Atletico to kick-start their faltering season.

Ashish Sharma, Goal.com