When 20 yrs is a lot

A REPORT ON RICKY RUBIO AND ACTRESS CLARA LAGO IN 'EL PAIS'

Ricky Rubio is the most expensive signing in the history of European basketball. Clara Lago has grown up under the spotlight of cinema. They share the same age, 19 years. And the experience of early success. From there, what else do they have in common?

Children emit a shrill shriek: "iiiii-iiii!". At full altitude. Without breathing. The cry from every corner of the courtyard of the Pious Schools in Barcelona: "iiiii-iiii!". One moment. Three consonants that are intuited then diluted among the waves. "Riii-cky!" scream. They want to draw your attention. To look at them. To greet them and sign an autograph on a pad, on a ball, on shoes. The Adolescents, made-up and their backpacks falling, chase with their mobile an impassive kid thats stands 1.90. Medium brown hair. Slowly walking. Ricard Rubio, 19, the promise of basketball. The most expensive transfer in history in Europe. The boy who debuted in ACB The Basketball League, at 14. Nobody ever did it so soon.

Quick as lightning on the court, voracious, electric. Poise and quiet outward. Ricky runs the school yard dressed in his Blue-scarlett tracksuit with the other players of Regal FC Barcelona. They shoot some hoops with the students. Promotion of the club. In the round of photos with each course, his presence has sparked a huge ruckus. It has not yet been a month training with his new team, but the guy from El Masnou (Barcelona) focuses all the light bulbs. A swarm of kids accompanied him to and fro. "I've never traveled with a rock star," said Pete Mickael on the phenomenon, one of his new teammates.

Ricky shrugs and says: "Pressure? I do not think about it. Where I have to show it is on the court. Working day to day. Let my skin shed every minute that I play, every second that I train". Comment shortly before leaving for the Pious Schools. His interviews have been doomed to the brevity of the megastars. Apparent maturity, but responds, in general, with the obvious. A bit like footballers. Understandably. His family protected him during adolescence, and only started to face the press when he turned 18. The anticipation was enormous. Now, with maximum interest, appointments happen. Barely having a few hours before the next apointment. So he has to talk while they do the makeup, comb his hair and smeared vaseline on the lips for the photo session.

On the other side of the mirror outside the dressing room, the actress Clara Lago jokes with grace and with bare legs. She'll be his companion in front of the camera. She awaits hovering between lingerie and shirts too loose. With wet hair and huge eyes. The session, someone somewhere said, it'll be "racier". There's a mattress on the floor of the photography studio. When Ricky came out of the dressing room, he showed off a poker face upon the panorama. And he will continue with that face during the shooting and between instructions: "Now this position, now this one." The boy did not seem comfortable, but responds with as much dignity as possible.

As for Clara Lago, on the other hand, has self-confidence to spare, sits astride the athlete. She embraces him, arching her back, had no trouble putting this or any other gesture. Enjoys. With only ten years old she first appeared in a television series. With eleven, she was given the lead role of El viaje de Carol (Carol's Journey)(2003), by Imanol Uribe, which earned her the nomination for Goya for best actress. Since her debut she has shot seven films and seven series. A lovingly cared career. Choosing good roles to avoid mistakes. She has worked, other than with Uribe, to the orders of Manuel Gutierrez Aragon. And her next film, El mal ajeno, produced by Alejandro Amenabar, and screenplay by Daniel Sánchez Arévalo.

She walked by the film industry without pressure. Taking good notes in class. Always advised by her parents, with whom she still lives. Clara Lago is no Marisol, so we can understand. "If anybody recognizes me on the street and you know my name, I'll give them a hug," she says of her fame. She has 19 years, like Ricky. Two extraordinary careers at that age when the majority are still lost, with adolescence at their heels, deciding whether to continue studying (or not), start to vote (or not) and getting a driver's license becomes the talk fetish (both of them got it recently). True, they are single, including 99.6% of the youth between 19 and 21 years, according to the Center for Sociological Research. But at that age only 12.3% live solely on their income. A large minority (39.2%) have not worked in their life, and 40.7% live on income from other people.

Ricky and Clara have worked for some time, if you like what you're doing, almost like a game, you can call work. Their faces are identifiable by their generation. An example for many. They Accumulate extensive experience in two of the disciplines most appealing among young people. Cinema. Sport. But a gulf separates them. He is a rock star. He signed autographs at 14. She fights at her own pace by opening a hole in the oscillating world of acting, where to go from being considered "a girl" to a "teen face" and that takes work. The transition to adulthood often leaves a trail of gutted toys on the road.

"Clara is an example of a well-run child actress. With her outstanding parents, she has always worked in quality products," says renowned casting director Luis San Narciso. It was he who touched her with his wand at age nine. He saw a video of her and was fascinated. "In that recording, Clara narrated a story to the camera. It had so much truth, with those huge eyes... I said, 'Bring me that girl!'". San Narciso, godfather of brilliant careers, gets excited , "I predict a good future. It is profound. She's talented and disciplined, as well as beautiful and very photogenic."

Clara rushes rolling a cigarette at the door of the photography studio. Speaking through elbows, and the cigarette goes constantly off. Clara's mother is a story teller. The rest is up to you. The video, for example. It happened, as these things happen, half by accident, partly by boldness. One day, having a drink with her parents in a bar, coincided with a known, Estefania Rueda, who worked at the production Globomedia. "The girl was very clear. Approached me and told me she wanted to be an actress," says Rueda. "I noticed that she talked and talked without any insecurity. The mother told her that if she really wanted to be an actress, it had to be she who work it. And soon, she phoned me!". She recorded a camera test and arrived to the eyes of Luis San Narciso.

Ricky, at ten years, took one of the most crucial decisions of his life. Before then he played football and basketball. "I couldn't continue with both because we trained three days a week. And because those at my school all would go for football, I opted for football. I was there for two or three months and did not quite liked it" he says. Genetics and environment also defined the face of the coin. His father, Esteve Rubio, was coaching the basketball team of Mataró. Ricky says that among his nebulous memories that fog halfway between memory and what they have told him, is him in a stroller pushed by his mother, Tona Vives, while he watch his father coach. And then there's his older brother, Marc, who was marking the milestone before him. Another memory: "I am in the stands. In the image I was about four years old. My brother is throwing the ball on the court. Plays in El Masnou."

In this club, then chairing Josep Maria Margall, legendary player of Joventut Badalona and Olympic silver medalist in Los Angeles 84, the legend begins. "At five years old, Ricky would go in to train with his brother," recalls Margall. "He was all day with the ball, dribbling with both hands. You had to be blind not to see that he would become a great player."

In the surroundings you began to hear about a kid who solved games with kids two years older than him. The fame of his brother Marc preceded him. In Badalona, the nearby municipality of El Masnou, is one of the most prolific player quarries, that of Joventut. To their ears came the rumors of two terrorific brothers from the minibasket courts. "The first time we saw Ricky was when we wanted to sign his brother," says Marc Calderon, one of the coaches in the youth ranks of Joventut. "To the father we told that the little one had a good point also" First came Marc. Within two years, with 13, was Ricky. "From the beginning I thought it was elected," said Calderon. "Not afraid, he was different. A gifted basketball player. Improved at an incredible rate. And did not stop. Striving for perfection. Has leadership skills... I remember at a final for minors. Before the game, he looked at me and said, 'Marc, I'm sure we win.' They won."

Soon after, Aito Garcia Reneses, coach of the first team, saw him sitting in the stands watching a warm up. He asked him to join, but Ricky was in sandals. Guillem Raventos, a fellow of the quarry, let him borrow his shoes. And he joined the training the summer of 2005. In autumn, shortly before turning 15, Aito made him debut in the ACB. That year he played 14 games at the highest level. The following summer, the boy who loaned him the shoes was killed in a motorcycle accident. Since then, Ricky looks up at the sky and he signals him every time he goes out onto the court, as if saying: "Guillem, I am where I am thanks to you." That summer, during the final of the European Under 16, he hit a triple from midfield at the last second. The images were seen around the world. Spain was three down in the scoring against Russia. A pass from backcourt, Ricky picks up the ball and throws it over three opponents. Three. Two. One. The ball crosses the magnificent ring. Forced overtime. They won. "It's a good memory," he says. "I have seen that basket several times so I won't forget." That ball, he commented on one occasion, was guided by his friend Guillem from the other side.

Behind the magic it hides obsessive work, tells those who have followed his evolution. "Ricky has very clear objectives. And a great determination to overcome them. Each error is taken as a challenge. Burning stages at full speed. Improving every day," says Marcel Roca, one of his coaches at the quarry in Badalona. "has no limits," considers his brother Marc, who now plays for Adepal Alcazar, third-rate team. "If he doesn't get tired of playing, he'll be unstoppable. For him, basketball is a game, not a job. " Ricky says: "I think every day I can improve. Small details to reach perfection. Players who have reached perfection ... I just think there is one: Michael Jordan. "

If Clara could choose a career, she would choose an American's. "For myself to desire... Meryl Streep's an example of an actress and a woman. I aspire to live from this. To have a good career, not just do any little thing." These days there is no script in hand. Does it worry you: "Since I don't have to pay any rent, I can say no to certain projects."

The director Imanol Uribe was impressed by the anecdotes of an eleven year old girl who was serious and methodical. In El viaje de Carol coincided actor Juan José Ballesta and her. "They were at opposite ends," says Uribe. "Ballesta, pure improvisation, never stopped moving until he enters onstage. Clara, however, would always tell me to give her half an hour of concentration before shooting. She had never taken any course on acting. It would come from inside. She says: "While my friends were into Pokémon, I swallowed the Marx Brothers." The Penelope Cruz in La niña de tus ojos (1998) left her knocked out. "I fell in love with her and everything she did. I asked my parents to buy the movie. I saw it 200 times. I learned the song, the dance... ". She repeated her gestures and her speech. "As a child," she assures, "I completely absorbed all the characters."

After walking the red carpet for Goya and greet Pe in person, she joined the school of Juan Carlos Corazza, from where actors have come like Javier Bardem. Page to page, she was growing, combining film and television, because that's how adolescent actors are in Spain. In El juego del ahorcado(2008) she appeared nude for the first time. At one point. In the movie she Interprets multiple sequence of high voltage with Alvaro Cervantes and discovers an attractive and powerful body. Her co-star says: "In the film there's other stronger scenes at an emotional level. But the sex, I think, marks a bit of change on the registration. Is take a step further away from the roles of child or adolescents. She does a job of an actress now mature."

In basketball, the majority of age is measured at the pace of the NBA. There the best lads run like the Gasols, Rudy Fernandez, Jose Manuel Calderon... Since when Ricky put that three pointer from half court, his surroundings speculated about a jump to the best league in the world. In June came the great event. He submitted to the draft, where the teams choose the novices. Analysts placed the Spaniard in the top three. And since in the NBA salaries are fixed by the order in which one is elected, a better spot would assure him a jucier sum. The idea was to pay the salary of the buyout clause of Joventut's (5.7 million). A mortgage to play with the best. But he turned out fifth, chosen by the Minnesota Timberwolves. Behind expectations. And it started a football type intergalactic saga, with court battles and rumors. It was even said that he would just stay the entire season in the stands. "I've gone through bad moments," he admits.

When Barça punched (4.2 million) on the table, it was September and the player was in Poland, paving the European Championships with the Spanish national team. They won the gold. Around the corner, in one of his first games with his new team, he faced off against his former teammates of Joventut in the Catalan League final. Fans of La Penya greeted him with heckles. He had an exquisite game and took the MVP trophy. "This year I hope to win all the titles. Joining Barca was the most important decision of my life." And emphasizes: "So far".

His mother, Tona, says it was risky to get into a mess of guarantees to make the leap. And that also it's not a bad idea that his son stayed still near the nest. "People forget that he is still very young. There is no hurry." He assumes that everything that has crossed this summer has helped him mature. He has taken the first step toward emancipation and has rented an apartment in Barcelona. But keeps going to his parents' house to eat, do laundry and sleep occasionally. In El Masnou he also bought a house to be with his life-long friends. "We play to playstation. I also have a table tennis... The good thing about my friends is that if I do something wrong, they get irritated. It is very important to know where you come from. And not be with people who want to be with you because of your success...". The basketball star is interrupted by his representative. The time has come for the photos. The mattress awaits laid on the pavement. While Ricky gives off a poker face, Clara is concentrating.

Translated from: rickyrubio9 via EL PAIS.com
Photos from EL PAIS.com