{"id":5670,"date":"2026-09-25T10:07:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T10:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/?p=5670"},"modified":"2026-09-25T10:07:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T10:07:11","slug":"donato-backs-depor-project-with-this-team-we-can-dream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/?p=5670","title":{"rendered":"Donato backs D\u00e9por project: with this team, we can dream"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<p><h3>The hero of the 2000 league title praises the blue-and-white squad as well as the figure of Antonio Hidalgo<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><strong>Donato Gama da Silva<\/strong> remains a true man of A Coru\u00f1a twenty-six years after that legendary header that set the club on the road to the <strong>2000<\/strong> <strong>league title<\/strong>. The legendary Spanish-Brazilian former footballer was the star of the latest installment of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lavozdegalicia.es\/noticia\/torremarathon\/2026\/09\/23\/donato\/00031790173941605451841.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\"><em>Torre de Marath\u00f3n<\/em><\/a>, where he spoke with great optimism about <a href=\"https:\/\/offsidersports.com\/blogs\/blog\/buen-punto-deportivo-y-tension-social-en-el-regreso-a-primera-division-en-riazor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\">the exciting return of <\/a><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/offsidersports.com\/blogs\/blog\/buen-punto-deportivo-y-tension-social-en-el-regreso-a-primera-division-en-riazor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\">Deportivo<\/a><\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/offsidersports.com\/blogs\/blog\/buen-punto-deportivo-y-tension-social-en-el-regreso-a-primera-division-en-riazor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\"> to <\/a><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/offsidersports.com\/blogs\/blog\/buen-punto-deportivo-y-tension-social-en-el-regreso-a-primera-division-en-riazor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\">La Liga<\/a><\/strong>. After watching the recent matches at <strong>Abanca-Riazor<\/strong> against <strong>Sevilla<\/strong> and <strong>Betis<\/strong> in person, the D\u00e9por legend did not hesitate to show his enthusiasm for the way the squad has been assembled: &#8220;They\u2019ve recruited very well and D\u00e9por have a good team that can really get us excited. Looking at the rest, I think <strong>the team can finish in the top ten<\/strong>. I\u2019ve always believed Deportivo needed a mix of experienced players and youngsters, and <strong>I love seeing people like Villares or Soriano giving everything, alongside veterans of the caliber of Aubameyang or Gim\u00e9nez<\/strong>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Now <strong>63 years old<\/strong>, living in A Coru\u00f1a and devoted to taking long walks along the Burgo estuary and practicing aikido, Donato also wanted to highlight the job <a href=\"https:\/\/offsidersports.com\/blogs\/blog\/antonio-hidalgo-la-baja-de-marc-es-muy-grande-para-nosotros\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\"><strong>Antonio Hidalgo<\/strong><\/a> is doing in charge of the H\u00e9rcules dressing room. <strong>&#8220;We have a tremendous coach. It\u2019s not easy at all to manage a dressing room with so many players who can step onto the pitch, and he\u2019s doing it very well. We need to support him much more,&#8221;<\/strong> said the legend, while also celebrating the integration of <a href=\"https:\/\/offsidersports.com\/blogs\/blog\/adrian-guerrero-firma-un-doblete-para-darle-al-fabril-su-primera-victoria-en-primera-rfef\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\">talents developed in <\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/offsidersports.com\/blogs\/blog\/adrian-guerrero-firma-un-doblete-para-darle-al-fabril-su-primera-victoria-en-primera-rfef\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\"><strong>Abegondo<\/strong><\/a> into the top flight. During the long conversation, the Deportivo icon looked back on unforgettable moments from his time in the city of H\u00e9rcules, from that friendly in <strong>Betanzos<\/strong> in <strong>1996<\/strong> when he defied <strong>John Toshack<\/strong> with a goal from midfield to earn his place at the club, to the bitterness of <strong>Djukic\u2019s<\/strong> penalty against <strong>Valencia<\/strong>, as well as the immediate revenge in the <strong>1995 Copa del Rey<\/strong>, when he asked <strong>Arsenio Iglesias<\/strong> to take the kickoff after play resumed following the hailstorm.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>The historic blue-and-white <strong>No. 6<\/strong>, who spent more than a decade at <a href=\"https:\/\/offsidersports.com\/blogs\/blog\/acuerdo-definitivo-en-marathon-inferior-el-depor-y-las-penas-firman-la-paz\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\">Riazor<\/a> until his departure in <strong>2003<\/strong>, did not hide the lingering disappointment over the way his farewell to the club was handled just as he was on the verge of an automatic renewal based on appearances. Even so, Donato reaffirmed his unconditional love for the club and for A Coru\u00f1a, where he happily lives with his family. In the more relaxed part of the interview, when put through a quick-fire round of questions, the Spanish-Brazilian chose <strong>winning the league title<\/strong> as the <strong>best moment of his career<\/strong>, named <strong>Luis Aragon\u00e9s<\/strong> as the <strong>best coach<\/strong> he ever had \u2014 while regarding Arsenio as a father figure \u2014 and picked <strong>Mauro Silva<\/strong> as his <strong>most special teammate<\/strong> and <strong>Rivaldo<\/strong> as the <strong>most decisive footballer<\/strong> he shared a dressing room with.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/onefootball.com\/en\/news\/donato-backs-depor-project-with-this-team-we-can-dream-43517879\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The hero of the 2000 league title praises the blue-and-white squad as well as the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5671,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2Fv22Fphotobooth2Fcms2Fen2F435178793Fdate2026-09-25.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}