This has to be a first: someone singing ‘I’m forever blowing bubbles’ in the main stand at Spain’s training ground just outside of Madrid.
‘They fly so high, nearly reach the sky,’ continues West Ham’s Pablo Fornals before translating the song back into Spanish: ‘Pompas de jabón, lindas pompas de jabon’.
Looking out on to the main training pitch and grinning broadly, Fornals is demonstrating that his English is good and that he knows the club song.
Pablo Fornals is back in the Spain set-up after impressing for West Ham so far this year
The 25-year-old (R) will play a part on Wednesday when the Spanish take on minnows Kosovo
He is a happy man because he’s where he wants to be right now: living in London, back in the Europa League with West Ham and back in the Spain squad after a three-year absence.
He came on as a second-half substitute on Sunday and immediately set-up Spain’s fourth goal in a 4-0 win over Georgia. On Wednesday night, he’ll play his part as they face Kosovo.
When West Ham signed him in 2019, European football and international call-ups were what were expected. His progress was interrupted by a difficult first year but under David Moyes he is thriving and excited by the Europa League challenge.
Fornals is back in the Europa League too - his ex-club, Villarreal, won last season's competition
The attacking midfielder can't wait for West Ham's Europa League adventure to begin next week
Can West Ham use Villarreal’s achievement last season to inspire them?
‘Well Villarreal are used to playing in European competition, but why not?’ he says. ‘Why not use them as an example. In the end each team has to play their own tournament and what we do on the pitch will decide how far we go.
‘You can never get distracted from the league because that is going to dictate where you will be the following year but the excitement we all have about playing the Europa League is immense.’
Perhaps that applies even more to Fornals who had such a tough first season interrupted by a change of manager, a relegation battle, and a global pandemic.
When Manuel Pellegrini was replaced at the start of 2020, Fornals soon dropped out of the team under Moyes.
The Spaniard scored away at Liverpool in February 2020 - which was the break he needed
It was away at Liverpool in February that things began to change. ‘There was an injury at half time and there were doubts about what to do because the manager had only just taken over and he asked Mark Noble what, between various options, he would he do?
'Mark was in this stage of his career where he was a bit of a link [between players and manager] and he looked at me, and turned back and said for the coach to give the opportunity to me.’
Fornals didn’t waste it, scoring in the second half. It was the first step on the road to convincing Moyes that he was worth his place in the team. ‘That’s a day in my life that I’ll never forget and it shapes what follows,’ he says.
Coronavirus sent football into lockdown soon after and left Fornals in his new flat
