Having grown up in a small town in the picturesque countryside of the Basque region of northern Spain, Kepa has retained his appreciation for nature and enjoys returning there for some peace and quiet during his time off.

However, when it comes to the other sports he enjoys, the goalkeeper likes things a bit faster paced, even if his Basque heritage still plays a major role...

Keeping with local tradition

I like to watch a lot of sports, but before I started playing football I didn’t do too much sport myself. I did one sport which is very typical in the Basque Country, which is cesta punta. It’s like pelota, but pelota is played just with the hand and cesta punta is with a big curved basket strapped to your hand.

The ball is so hard and it’s a very quick sport which is traditional where I grew up. It’s a very old sport too and is also played a lot in places around the Americas, like Miami and that area.

There are a few different sports like cesta in the Basque Country that are played on the same court, including pelota which I played as well, but just to have fun. With cesta it was maybe a bit more serious, playing after school.

I practised playing that for one or two years before I started playing football properly. At the same time I was playing football as well, at about six, seven, eight years old, but when I was nine I started in the Athletic Bilbao academy, so I stopped playing other sports.

I don’t know why I liked it. It’s a different kind of sport and my friends started playing it and I tried to, playing one or two times a week when I was kid. So I’ve got good memories of that.

The need for speed

I am a big fan of cycling, F1 and Moto GP, and I also follow basketball. I like Formula 1 and we talk at Cobham every Monday after a race. We have a few players who like it, like Timo, Kai and Mason, so we discuss what’s happened in the race and talk about it, which I enjoy.

Fernando Alonso was the one who opened the door to Formula 1 in Spain. He was the first one to win a Grand Prix, he won two World Championships, so he’s massive in Spain. It’s good to have him back in F1 now after a couple of years.

We also have another big driver Carlos Sainz doing well at Ferrari, so hopefully he can do well this season. I think they have a very good car, Ferrari is doing very good work at the moment.

When Formula 1 or MotoGP comes here to Silverstone and we have free day or no game I’m there, because I like to see different sports from inside, not just on the TV – to feel the atmosphere, feel how they prepare for every corner, how they work. And also to meet with people from other sports and have a chat about our different sports and what we do.

For example, the last time I went to the MotoGP at Silverstone I was with a Spanish rider Maverick Vinales, and he came with the British rider Cal Crutchlow to Stamford Bridge to meet us and see everything at Stamford Bridge from the inside.

When I was at Silverstone with Maverick in 2019 I gave the trophies out on the podium. It was amazing, I didn’t expect it but MotoGP asked me if I wanted to do it. Of course I did! I was proud to do that and it was a good experience.

The winner was Alex Rins, second was Marc Marquez and the third one was Maverick, so they were all Spanish and they didn’t expect to see me there giving the trophies out either. They were surprised and asking what I was doing there!

Relaxing in the country

I am an easy-going person I think, so I just like to be with my friends when I have time off. When I was young my little town was by the beach, but had mountains, so it was in the middle of nature. When I was little, what we did after school was go to the mountains or the beach, just doing the usual kid things but in nature. It was good to grow up like that.

What I like to do when the season is finished is go back home, be with my people in my safe area and just rest. Because I grew up in that area, in that peaceful atmosphere, when I have time after a long season I like to be there just to be calm, be with my friends, be in the good atmosphere and relax there. It’s a good way to recharge the batteries.

Joining the peloton from the saddle, sidelines or sofa

Also in my free time, in the summer or whenever, I like to sometimes take a bike and ride with my friends, just to refresh my mind, not think about football and have a rest.

During the season I can’t do that, and I live in London so it’s more difficult here anyway, because there’s a lot of traffic. So I stick to easy rides when I’m back home, just to be with friends and I enjoy the sport a lot.

When there are races on the TV I am also ready to watch it. People say sometimes to watch the cycling on TV is boring, but I like it!

In the Basque Country we have a very popular team called Euskaltel-Euskadi. They wear orange and have big support in all the Basque Country, where cycling is a very big sport, a lot of people like it.

So when you have the Tour de France or the Vuelta Espana they call it ‘the orange wave’ because everybody goes to the mountains and the climbs to support the riders. So maybe that is why I’ve liked cycling since I was a kid.