Jorge Resurreccion Merodio - or ‘Koke’ to the football world – made his Atletico Madrid debut age 17 away to Barcelona in a 3-0 defeat.
No surprise, there – Atletico usually lose at Camp Nou. Seventeen years and 730 Atletico games later, he came back to Barcelona for a Uefa Champions League quarter-final first leg. He’s the only player remaining from 17 years – ago and has averaged an astonishing 47 games per season for his club. Caps for Spain came on top – 70 of them – the last in 2022.
But for Atletico, Koke, 34, remains essential. By comparison, Pedri, 24 and a full 10 years younger, was Barcelona’s longest-serving player on the pitch, another central force.
Koke was only risked for 45 minutes in the weekend home defeat to Barcelona. That’s because the Champions League was the bigger game. Diego Simeone's decision was vindicated.
Captain of the club he has supported all his life, Koke was instrumental in Atletico's 2-0 victory on Wednesday night. The result was a major shock, though not a complete surprise. Nothing is when Simeone is involved, with Koke his highly-motivated master on the pitch, every ball he kicks or move he makes smart and cunning. Barca played well, Atletico played better.
Julian Alvarez put Atletico ahead just before half-time with a stunning free-kick awarded after defender Pau Cubarsi received a straight red card following a VAR check for bringing down Giuliano Simeone. Alavarez is one of the best players in the world and no striker has scored more than his five in the knock-out stages of this season’s Champions League.
Atleti’s second, from a sweet Alexander Sorloth left foot after 70 minutes, now makes it doubly hard for Barcelona in next week's return leg.
The Norwegian has scored seven goals in 14 games against Barcelona, not all of them starts. Atletico’s forwards will deservedly receive most of the praise and Alvarez was the man of the match. Yet Koke was, inevitably, the one who helped put them into a dominant position. He was the first player to receive a card in a game which saw four yellows and one red.
That it took until the half-hour mark raised eyebrows after he had acquainted himself with Lamine Yamal’s shins as early as the seventh minute. He was fortunate the referee didn’t book him twice.
Atletico worked hard, but Barcelona were the better side in the first half. Crucially though, the home team were down to 10 men.
Koke led his team out for the second half late to agitate the 62,000 crowd, 4,000 of them Spanish flag-waving Atleti fans. And what noise those Barca supporters made as they urged an equaliser. Marcus Rashford, in his first European start since November, had four efforts on goal in the first half before a 52nd-minute free-kick was tipped onto the bar. Barca needed the breaks, Koke did the breaking.
In the 2010s, Atleti shed their pupas – a team derided for failure – status, winning La Liga in 2014 and reaching two Champions League finals. It coincided with Koke becoming a mainstay in the team. He’s been a vital ingredient in giving his club their identity back.
It used to drive him crazy when he and his friends only had one argument remaining as peerless Real Madrid won everything. “It doesn’t bother me, I’m Atleti", he’d say, but he also knew that the super teams were not superhuman. He’d defeated them for Atletico youth teams and then for the first team when his chance came.
“He wants to win. He does win. And I want to win,” Koke once said of his boss Simeone. “The training is obsessed. He wants to win even the smallest friendly matches. No excuses. Wherever the mister wants me, I’ll play.”
Koke told this writer that in 2014, the year they broke the Barca-Madrid hegemony. They have done it again since, no mean feat given the strength of Spain’s biggest two clubs.
At Camp Nou on Wednesday, Koke came off the pitch after 59 minutes, having helped guide his team into a winning position. He urged the substitutes on, a captain in name and action. With a booking, it made sense. He’s not a player whose legs will give a team an advantage when it’s 11 against 10. But he will back for the second leg next week in his beloved Atletico Madrid.
