EXCLUSIVEMallorca's jet-setting owners have taken them out of the Spanish third tier to one game from the Europa League - but the Graeme Le Saux-支援するd 味方する don't 計画（する） on stopping yet as midfielder Dani Rodriguez opens up on the feel-good story

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Football clubs owned or run by 豊富な retired sports legends don’t always 栄える, but with Andy Kohlberg, Steve Nash, Steve Kerr and Graeme Le Saux watching them on Saturday night Mallorca are 90 minutes from winning the Spanish Cup and getting themselves into next season’s Europa League.

Former US tennis プロの／賛成の Kohlberg is 大多数 株主. Nash and Kerr, 伝説の 指名するs from the world of Basketball, are both co-owners. And former England defender Le Saux is a director and 助言者. All have played a big part in the story.

But just a year after the glamorous US-based 所有権 got 伴う／関わるd in 2016, the club were relegated to the tumbleweed of Spain’s third tier.?

The 旅行 支援する to the 最高の，を越す flight, 負かす／撃墜する again, 支援する up again, and into Saturday’s Copa del Rey final has been a rollercoaster and the big 指名するs the （不足などを）補う that 所有権 国際借款団／連合 would be the first to point to individuals like Dani Rodriguez as having been the real モーター behind the incredible 旅行.

‘Those of us who have been here for some time have seen a little bit of everything,’ the midfielder tells Mail Sport as the biggest day in the club’s history in the last two １０年間s ぼんやり現れるs.

Dani Rodriguez has spoken to Mail Sport about the rise of Mallorca ahead of the Cup Final?

Former US tennis プロの／賛成の Andy Kohlberg (left) is a 大多数 株主 in the Spanish club?

Former Chelsea, Blackburn and England defender Graeme Le Saux is a director and 助言者

He was one of the 重要な members of the team that won 昇進／宣伝 支援する to the Primera Liga in 2019. The に引き続いて season he 得点する／非難する／２０d their first goal 支援する in the 最高の，を越す flight after just four minutes of the 開始 game.

He is still 栄えるing, now under the wily leadership of Mexican coach Javier Aguirre, and can 反映する on what a 旅行 it has been.

‘There have been good times, and some not so good, but in the main it’s been 広大な／多数の／重要な and now to have Mallorca in a cup final, 井戸／弁護士席 it would have been 考えられない for many, 特に those of us who have been here a long time.

‘We can make history on Saturday and we know we’ll make a lot of people happy in the 過程 if we do.’

The owners, who have been on the island in the build-up to the big game,’ will be delighted and feel vindicated for never losing 約束 in the 事業／計画（する）.

‘‘It’s always good to see them, they bring a good vibe with them and they have been with us in the good times and the bad,’ says Rodriguez.?

‘What they have done during these years has been fantastic. The club has grown enormously. To go from Segunda B (third tier) to Primera and to play a cup final it means you must have done a lot 権利.’

Perhaps one of their wisest calls was to stick with 65-year-old coach Aguirre when most people believed he had only been パラシュート（で降下する）d into to save the club from relegation in the 2021-22 season before 存在 取って代わるd by a younger man.

Aguirre arrived in Spain after starring for Mexico in the 1986 World Cup. He was the player who flicked the ball up for Manuel Negrete to 得点する／非難する／２０ what was one of the goals of that tournament.

Osasuna 調印するd him but 傷害 削減（する） short his playing career and it was in 2002 that he returned to the club as coach 主要な them to a fourth-place finish and 収入 himself a move to Atletico Madrid.

‘His 評判 after that was for saving teams from relegation as he did for both Zaragoza and Espanyol before repeating the trick at Mallorca.

It’s not just the Mallorca fans who don’t want him to leave. His 圧力（をかける） 会議／協議会s are box office.

‘He should be upset because you can't 行方不明になる those goals, Playing against us last season the b*星／主役にするd put them in the 最高の，を越す corner didn’t he,’ he said when asked about his striker Cyle Larin looking glum after 行方不明の a sitter earlier this season

Mallorca's Mexican coach Javier Aguirre has been in 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金 of the Spanish since 2022?

Mallorca celebrate （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 Real Sociedad on 刑罰，罰則s to reach the Copa del Rey Final?

Mallorca are 現在／一般に 15th in LaLiga and in their third 連続した 最高の，を越す flight （選挙などの）運動をする?

‘His 圧力（をかける） 会議／協議会s are real shows,’ says Rodriguez. ‘But what he says to the マスコミ he says to us too. He is a very authentic person. There is nothing two-直面するd about him; he is the way he is. He hides nothing.

So what about the squad that Aguirre has to work with? Who is the joker, the hard-man, the ‘baller?

‘I like to make people laugh and Pablo Maffeo is the same, he’s a real joker who enjoys winding people up,’ says Rodriguez.

He says characters like centre-支援する Ma rtin Valjent and 巨大（な） Kosovo centre-今後 Vedat Muriqi 奮起させる the most 恐れる. ‘He has a big heart but the way he looks, it’s a bit more 脅すing,’ he says of Muriqi.

Asked for the most talented of the group with the ball at his feet, he agrees that it would have been Kang-In 物陰／風下 last season (now at Paris Saint Germain) and now 選ぶs out Nemanja Radonjic who arrived from Torino in January.

And then he shoots 負かす／撃墜する Mail Sport’s suggestion that goalkeeper Dominik Grief would be the serious one. Coach Aguirre has spoken about how the Slovakian seemed lost when he arrived. ‘He surprises you eh! He’s seems introverted but he has a good sense of humour,’ he says.

Dani Rodriguez?has been the real モーター behind the incredible 旅行 of Mallorca?

運動競技の Bilbao are Mallorca’s 競争相手s in the final and there is little 疑問 about their favourites’ status. They have won the 競争 23 times. Only Barcelona have 解除するd the トロフィー more often. But 非，不，無 of this seems to bother Rodriguez and his team-mates.

‘They have all the 圧力. We just have to enjoy it. We will go out to 勝利，勝つ the game of course but they have the 圧力 to 勝利，勝つ it,’ he says.

All the talk in Spain is of how 運動競技の celebrate トロフィーs on ‘La Gabarra’ the 船 moored on the river that runs past their San Mames stadium. They have no used it since they did the cup and league 二塁打 in 1984.

At Mallorca there is no talk of what they will do if they 勝利，勝つ. ‘In Mallorca nobody is talking about that. We want to go and 勝利，勝つ it and then we will see what we do next. When you 計画（する） these things it usually turns out 不正に,’ says Rodriguez.

What everyone wants is for the big day to arrive although the 35-year-old has been around long enough to speak some truth to the impatience of 青年.

運動競技の Bilbao stand in the way of Mallorca and Copa del Rey success this 週末?

‘It does seem that time stands still in the week 主要な up to the game and some of the players were 説 how they just 手配中の，お尋ね者 the day to come,’ he says.

‘But I tell them: enjoy the day to day. Time 飛行機で行くs in football and you don’t 高く評価する／（相場などが）上がる it so enjoy this beautiful w eek when the whole island is so excited about the final.

‘It is the most beautiful match in Spanish football. There’s no 疑問 about it. It’s the game where you see both 始める，決めるs of 支持者s inside a 十分な stadium 権利 behind their team. And since they changed the 判型 to 選び出す／独身 脚 関係 (until the 半分-決勝戦) it’s more like the FA Cup now. It’s 魔法.’

Before that change Barcelona or Real Madrid invariably reached the final because it was so difficult for smaller teams to （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 them over two 脚s. Now the fairytales are a little easier to make happen.

And with their jet-始める，決める 所有権 and squad of 戦う／戦い-worn honest professionals like Rodriguez this is a fairytale as worthy as any.