I keep the club, people running it and supporters deeply in my heart. Since my first day at the club everyone was 100 per cent supportive.I think everyone involved with the club understood the difficulty of moving abroad without speaking the language. There was no family around either, so little details took greater significance. Even a simple hello and a smile takes a different dimension in that situation.
When you are on your own you look around for what you miss more. Maybe the support of your family and friends. In that situation the people around and your friends take a different and more important role than they think. They somehow become your family. I am sure that I would not have found that feeling, which I found at Scunthorpe, in many other clubs.
Scunthorpe United offered me the opportunity to live a wonderful experience and I will always be grateful for it.
Bear in mind too It was also early days for foreigners coming over to England, and we were all adapting to a new and different era.
Maybe only time puts things into perspective. I look back now and fully understand what a privileged person I was for being given the opportunity to fulfil my professional and personal dreams. I only wish that we, as coaches, fathers or educators, can teach our future footballers to appreciate these things and realise that one must rule himself under solid values and principles. Unfortunately nowadays, football sometimes moves in the opposite direction.
I do believe that my biggest achievement in football is my relationship with the club and the supporters, something that goes beyond the game itself and will last forever.
Supporters maybe appreciated that I tried to repay them each time I wore the Scunny shirt. Professional and personally I enjoyed a very fruitful time in North Lincolnshire. It was a wonderful journey together that unfortunately had to come to an end. I always said that I would have loved to be a footballer until 65 but your legs think differently...
Whenever you hear a footballer saying that it is a tough job, full of pressure and so on, you can have a laugh at them. What a great job it is!
I am also proud that my two sons were born in Scunthorpe, which will always keep alive my connection with England. Believe when I say that we try to educate them with the view of England as a special place.
Apart from all this emotionalism and so on let's hope the team turns around the current situation and with their effort and our support we start building again the recent successful years. Believe me, that what you do in the stands has an effect on the pitch.
Tickets for the Iron Trust's evening with Alex Calvo-Garcia are still available via the ticket office at Glanford Park. Tickets are free for Trust members, and £15 for non-members (joining the Trust is a tenner for adults, so why not just sign-up!). You can also join the Trust at www.theirontrust.com. You can also sign up as a member or pay on the day.