When Raphael Varane rises from his plush pillow in his London hotel room this morning the nerves will begin to kick in. For a player who has won the Champions League four times and the World Cup, the Carabao Cup final might be considered a Sunday stroll. But for United’s ‘soldier’ at the back, the butterflies will still be there.
Raphael Varane said: “When it’s special, like a final, you feel different from the moment you wake up in the morning. You feel the atmosphere change. But that gives you energy – because it’s natural that when you’re scared you run faster!”
Varane has been on fast-forward for a decade now. His first major honour came at 19 when he won La Liga with Real Madrid, and there have been 20 major medals in a decorated career. The Premier League drought will reach a decade this season and United didn’t qualify for the Champions League last term, but suddenly everything feels possible again and Varane intends to enjoy the journey, having experienced the demands of fighting just to stay at the top during his 10 years at Real.
Raphael Varane said: “Honestly, it’s better when you’re going up. When you are on the top the only thing that can change is to disappoint. You can’t do anything better because you’re already there. When you can grow with the club and the team, that’s a great feeling. With Madrid my best memories were when we were climbing and on the journey rather than the arrival.”
That 2012 title was significant for Varane and for Real. They had gone four years without winning the league and were in a difficult spell, but once the first trophy was in the bag, a trickle became a flood, including four Champions League wins in five years. Varane credits that first title with changing the belief within that squad, something that feels prophetic for this United team. While the Frenchman is one of several players recruited with an impressive CV recently, they haven’t won together as a group. Today is an opportunity to taste that sensation of collective triumph and if it happens, Varane believes it could be the start of something greater at Old Trafford.
Raphael Varane said: “I was speaking with Sergio Ramos about it in Madrid, and when we start winning, we won a lot – but before that it was the same. We went years without at Madrid, it was a very long time, and when we won it changed not the mentality, but the belief. When you win you start to think ‘okay, we did it, so now we can do it again.’ It’s about the winning mentality and when you start to win you just want to win and nothing else. It doesn’t mean that when you aren’t winning you don’t want to. But you do believe more that it is possible and sometimes you need a bit of luck as well. And when you are more confident you bring the luck with you. It’s a positive cycle.”
Varane, who praises Ten Hag’s “discipline” and “tactical details” – is talking in a box overlooking the pitch at Old Trafford and although the stadium is empty, he points to the stands when talking about the connection that is developing between players and supporters. One of those has become Varane’s partner in central defence. When asked if his relationship with the hot-headed and intense Lisandro Martinez is like fire and ice, he nods but insists they complement each other well. There have also been more overt shows of emotion amongst the defenders as well this season, but that is something instigated by Varane rather than Martinez.
Raphael Varane said: “I think my first game this season against Liverpool, before the game I spoke with my teammates in defence and I said okay, we can celebrate every game, every tackle, every good action and create something and since this first game, we are doing it every game. So it’s very positive and we can feel the energy and the connection with the fans and we have something special here at Old Trafford, so we have to use it because we can lose three nil but with Old Trafford something can change and we can win every game. Even when we are losing. We have to feel that confidence and that energy we have to use it.”
That desire to celebrate every defensive contribution would go down well with one of Varane’s former bosses, Jose Mourinho, a coach who also trusted the centre-back as a young defender at Real Madrid. That might go against the grain of the idea that Mourinho doesn’t trust youth, but for Varane it wasn’t about his age, but his ability to go to war.
Raphael Varane said: “I think for him the most important thing is not the age, it is the mentality – and (he thinks) ‘if he is a soldier I can put him in’. So it was not the characteristics of how I play, it was the mentality. Is he still a soldier? “Yes, I am.”
His battleground is now Old Trafford rather than the Bernabeu and perhaps it was fate that he would always end up here one day. Sir Alex Ferguson tried to sign him from Lens as an 18-year-old and rather than Real trumping United, it was a shift in strategy to sign Chris Smalling instead that put an end to the move.
Raphael Varane said: “I was very close to coming here. I think we were agreed, I think Lens and Manchester, but then, I don’t know, I think Manchester change their mind and they sign maybe another player or they have different options, who thought he was heading to Old Trafford in 2010.
Real Madrid wasn’t a bad consultation prize, but 13 years on he is finally at United and embracing the journey. Wembley on Sunday could be the first of many stops.
