Espanyol’s Sergi Darder on mental health struggles and offers advice to players

Espanyol midfielder Sergi Darder has explained how he found help with his mental health both inside and outside the club after speaking out about how stress had affected his outlook.

Espanyol midfielder Sergi Darder has urged footballers struggling with their mental health to open up to family and teammates to get the help they need.

The 28-year-old insisted that it was important for footballers to be honest with themselves and address their problems in order to feel better. It came after Darder gave a candid interview to ESPN earlier this year where the midfielder explained that he was “not in a good place” mentally despite being the captain of the Catalan club.

The Spaniard did not believe he was depressed, but claimed that the pressures of his career were affecting him and led to a deterioration in his mental health that led him to explain the situation to those close to him, both personally and professionally.

Darder is now approaching a decade at the highest level having started his senior career at Malaga before spending three years in Ligue 1 with Lyon. The former Spain Under-21 international returned to La Liga in 2018 to join Espanyol, where he has been a mainstay in midfield ever since.

He has now gone into more detail about how he approached his situation; explaining to close friends and family, but also to the club itself. Darder praised Espanyol for handling his admission and had special praise for goalkeeper Diego López.

The central midfielder explained that López, whose career at the highest level has spanned two decades and included multiple stints in real Madrid and Milan, he played a key role in improving Darder’s prospects and was a component of the Espanyol dressing room he could rely on.

“I had to reassess how I felt, because I didn’t feel that good, but fortunately there were players who were able to help me a lot,” Darder explained, recalling that period. “Diego was one of the players in the squad who helped me a lot. Sometimes it’s a matter of being honest with yourself and if you don’t feel like you can perform at the level the club deserves, you need to address things.”

Darder continued: “I didn’t feel like I could help the team enough at the time, but with the help not only of specialists, in this case the psychologists who gave me guidelines on how I could change my mindset, but also of family members. , friends, my wife, my children and my teammates, particularly Diego. He helped me with so many things given his experience in so many clubs. It’s always a good idea to listen to what these people have to say.”

The midfielder added: “The two main people who helped me were Diego and the coach, they got me through this and each one can help in different ways. Diego was a great help on a personal level and the most professional coach. This meant that I was able to improve my performances. It is important to listen to other people with other experiences, it is very important, even if you do not know them”.