Matías Prats Chacón, journalist: «My father and I get stung by the audiences»

When he was born, the press baptized him Matías III. Today he is a sports journalist in love with his job. Grandson, “to great honor”, of a legendary grandfather, whom he idolizes and imitates at home pronouncing ‘Faragofa’, and son of a television legend with whom he competes in audience, Matías Prats Chacón, 37 years old, publishes his first novel, ‘The future you forgot’, the story of a missing tennis player and a journalist investigating the case. He signs it without using his middle name.

–At first I thought the author was his father.

–He doesn’t dare, and look how they have tempted him. He is very cautious. On the other hand, I, the kid, have managed to be the first of the Prats to write a book. It was a major challenge to surpass them in something; saving distances. They are both masters of communication. And the label of writer is too big for me.

– Matías Prats Chacón could sign and avoid confusion.

-I started on the radio when I was very young as Matías Chacón. But I thought that if I was trying hard and my father was proud of me, I shouldn’t hide. Same thing with the book.

–Would Matías name a son?

I think my father would be very excited. But you have to think about it. The kid was going to drop a small slab. I say this from experience. When I got my driver’s license I was terribly embarrassed when Matías Prats said it out loud, in front of hundreds of people. I got up and heard: «This is not Matías Prats!».

–Did your father feel bad that you didn’t dedicate the novel to him?

-He has accepted it with sportsmanship. He already has a lot of focus, the applause of critics and the affection of an entire country. It was time to vindicate an anonymous character, my mother, a vital woman, an example of life.

–The journalist in your novel speaks of professional integrity.

– Journalism hurts me. We have lost credibility. We have to be self-critical. Now it’s easy to click and I like investigative journalism.

-Is he more of a thief, the one who steals some audios or the one who collects commissions?

– Stealing audio is a crime, but charging commissions is unethical. And ethics matters to me. Why don’t they put Saudi Arabia to the judgment of an independent ethics commission? There is a conflict of interest here. Piqué cannot be organizing and distributing the prizes of a competition in which he is going to participate. Where has this been seen? And then those audios have revealed their requests to Rubiales… A scandal. With this the castle of ethics falls on you.

His father works in the competition. Do they have many trade secrets?

-I adore my father and I always want him to do well, but I’m wearing the Telecinco shirt and I want us to beat Antena 3 in audience. Between us we bite, we send the audiences, we hesitate. We have a healthy competition.

–Do they wear the same football team shirt?

-My father has never meant. I don’t hide: I’m from Atlético de Madrid. And that doesn’t stop me from reporting objectively on the other teams. I don’t like trench journalism or scarf journalism. In politics, the same. I miss impartiality and plurality. Sports and politics are too similar.