Fer Lopez revealed that good friend Jorgen Strand Larsen convinced him that he’d be the perfect fit for Vitor Pereira’s Wolves ahead of his move to Molineux.
The 21-year-old Spaniard has become Wolves’ first signing of the summer, sparking a reunion with Strand Larsen, whom he played with at Celta Vigo, and has since remained close with.
Lopez says conversations with the Norwegian, Pereira’s influence and previous experience living in the UK all combined to make a simple decision for the Old Gold’s latest recruit.
On making his Molineux move
“It's an amazing opportunity for my career to play in the Premier League, and I'm very happy. The club told me, and Vitor told me that they thought that I was a good fit in the squad. When it’s a club like this, you have little to think about. It's true, it was very hard to leave my boyhood club, but I was very pleased to come here and play in, with LaLiga I think, the best league in the world.
“Last season I played at the Bernabeu twice, I played Barcelona away, Atletico Madrid away – they were the best atmospheres in Spain. Now, I want to do the same, but in England.”
On the Wolves he’s joining
“I'm very aware. Jorgen [Strand Larsen] told me, because under Vitor he scored a lot more goals. I know that the team did very good last season when Vitor came, and they battled relegation comfortably. I think that the coach is top, and I'm very excited to be with him.
“I'm a player that likes to play from the right-hand side, because I'm left footed, in between lines, and when I get the ball, I try to be as vertical as possible, to drive with the ball, look for a final pass and also shoot so I can chip in with goals. For me, the important thing is to create things, to create shots, to create passes, and to try to create goals.”
On being close with Strand Larsen
“He's a top man. We went on holiday to Greece this summer. I didn't have the opportunity to play an official game with him, I played some friendly games with the first-team because I was still in the academy, I was 18 or 19, but he's a top guy, and he helped me a lot in my decision, because I know that with him here, I'm going to have someone I can trust. I'm moving away from my family, and it's a difficult step, not just in sport, more in my life outside football, and I know he's going to be there for me.
“He told me that to play in the Premier League and with a team like Wolves, it's amazing, that the fans were incredible, and that he had a great year last year, he told me he had one of the best seasons in his life. So, he told me that I should come, that with the gaffer and all the teammates, the style of play was going to be very good. We're going to play good football, attractive football, and I think I can fit in there.”
On his breakthrough year
“It was amazing. To be able to finish seventh in a competition like La Liga was amazing. My breakthrough year, I cannot explain with words, because it was everything I had dreamed of before, when I was playing in the academy and on the B team. It was playing with my mates, because we had a very young squad and a lot of us came from the academy, and I was playing with my friends, so I was happy, I was enjoying it, and I think that was the main thing that took us to seventh.
“The manager trusted me a lot. Also, I learned a lot from Iago Aspas who was a bit like my mentor. We played in the same position, even though we are not the same type of player. He helped me a lot throughout my six months in the first-team, and when I was training with them before, even though I was not playing with them, he was such a good guy, he's my idol, and I'm so grateful for everything he showed me.”
On having lived in England before
“I think [it will help] a lot, especially with language, because I went there when I was 15, to school in Stowmarket for four months, and it helped me a lot to be without my family. I learned a lot of things, and also a little bit of the English culture, not a lot, but a little.
“I went to a lot of games because my sports coach at the school loved football and we used to train after school ended, him and me one on ones, finishing and things like that. He took me to every possible game we could. I remember watching England versus Croatia in the Nations League at Wembley, and when I walked into the stadium, I was like, ‘Wow, my dream is to play here’, and obviously to play in the Premier League.”
