Java Deflection: from First Division to backpacker

Last update 6 April, 2024 por Alberto Llopis

Can you imagine playing soccer, debut in the elite, and suddenly, de la noche a la mañana, leave everything to go fix the world?, do not imagine why this has already happened. Today we want to remember a different hung, to a young man with strong and extreme ideas alike, a boy who decided to quit football when he was going to sign his first professional contract. For those who do not know it yet, we talk about Javi Poves, from footballer to backpacker.

He was born in Madrid a 28 de septiembre de 1986. He trained as a footballer in the Atlético de Madrid quarry, although there were several colors that he defended in the Spanish capital. Rayo Vallecano B stands out, Las Rozas or Navalcarnero, but his chance came to him in 2008 when he signed for Sporting de Gijón B. During the season 10/11 He became part of the Asturian first team and ended up debuting in the top flight on 21-5-11 in the Rico Pérez by the hand of the great Manolo Preciado.

So far it seems the typical plain story of an ordinary boy from the neighborhood, but only two months later, the dissatisfied Poves decides to terminate his contract with the sportinguistas. He had previously refused to be paid by a simple bank transfer as well as the vehicle that had been made available to him from the rojiblanca institution. Just a few days later, he surprised everyone with a premature withdrawal, citing moral principles and questions of conscience.. A strong opinion and personal conviction about the beautiful game, they were incompatible with the possibility of dedicating his life to it. "Soccer is just money and corruption, in addition to capitalism, which for me is synonymous with death ". This was his farewell to Mareo in August 2011.

Recently, the anti-system footballer, as many media baptized it, it has once again become "Trending-Topic". After his particular history of disagreement with professional football and with the social world in general, He decided to dedicate his immediate future to traveling around the planet and above all to getting to know himself better., discovering new cultures, religions and ideologies that help you to realize yourself as a human being.

His peculiar pilgrimage took him to corners of the globe such as Senegal, Mexico, Cuba, Venezuela, Paraguay, Siberia, Perú, always of course without stepping on a hotel 5 stars. In his travels through Cuba and Venezuela he met the political regimes of Castro and Chávez. The first failed to convince him as he was not what Cubans want., on the contrary, he considers himself a more chavista, since as he himself has mentioned sometime, the Bolivarian model of government of Venezuela is close to its ideal of life.

The last country you have visited is Iran, that of his great idol Ayatollah Khomeini. That stay in Persian lands not only awakened his Islamic faith, Instead, he realized that Islam is his way of seeing the world and the religion that has brought him closer to what God and the truth are for him.. The young Poves affirms that the Iranian state is the best country he has known in his still short life and where women have more freedom than in our own nation. His devotion to Ala has made him want to move there and he even considers enlisting in the army in case of an external attack from Israel.. And it is that while training at the highest level, what invaded his thoughts was the conflict between Israel and Palestine.

Currently he continues with his studies of History, although he is not in a hurry to finish them because he does not believe much in the Spanish educational system. “I have had colleagues who for playing for Real Madrid gave them their Baccalaureate and claimed that they could not live with less than 5000 euros per month ", a totally anti-Poves philosophy of life. Today he lives on his savings and what he receives from the rent of his apartment in Lavapies. He also collaborated with his sister and mother to set up a small family business of organic food near the Puerta de Toledo in his hometown.

According to the clear-minded young man, people who are able to understand true Islam will be happier. "I ask you to inquire into what it means that it is not terrorism, no bombs, nor Bin Laden ... ”This is Javi Poves the young man who gave up the dream par excellence of any child to embrace Islam and know the world.