Spar Girona player Laia Palau (Barcelona, ??1979) announced this morning that she is quitting playing basketball. Palau, who has been linked to the Girona club for the last four seasons and who has been a sports benchmark throughout her long career, has not wanted to use the word “retired” because she will continue to be linked to this sport.
“I am not retiring from the world of basketball, the idyll with this sport has not ended”, Palau explained that, although she ends her stage as a professional player, she wanted to make it clear that she will continue to be linked to an “infinite” sport and that “it is and It will be my life.”
“I have the feeling that I am not leaving; I will stop passing the ball, but I will continue in this world,” said the point guard who was moved at his farewell, which was attended by his teammates, as well as his family and names basketball and club stars such as Marc Gasol.
The Barcelona base has said goodbye from the Fontajau park in Girona, its city in the last four seasons. His has been a goodbye full of thanks: to his teammates, his family, the club, the directors, the coaching staff, the fans, the city and life. “My life has been amazing, life He has treated me very well”, he has repeated on several occasions.
The 42-year-old point guard, who debuted in the professional world in 1997 at the CBF Universitari de Barcelona, ??acknowledged “being a gift in this sport for five years.” “If I had retired then, it would have been very good too,” she noted.
The player explained that the final decision was made “recently”, at the end of the season, having distanced herself from the competition, emotions and exhaustion. “I didn’t see myself playing for 45 years,” said the athlete who has also been in the ranks of other teams in France, Belgium, Australia, Poland and the Czech Republic.
Although she acknowledged that the decision to get off the track “has cost me”, she has been convinced that she has taken the right path. “This train has passed and I have taken it and this decision has come naturally to me”, she explained this morning during her appearance in Fontajau.
“Life is cycles, I could have continued another year, or not, but there are things that make me very excited,” Palau explained to justify his goodbye from the track. “I have left it when I wanted, choosing the moments is also important,” she said.
The club has offered him to take care of the base of the sports academy, which will bear his name, a project that will give more details in the coming days. The president of Spar Girona, Cayetano Pérez, has also announced that his number 3 will be withdrawn and will be hung in Fontajau.
The club also plans to organize an event so that all the Girona fans can say goodbye to the base that has contributed to the club’s recent successes such as the league won in 2019, the 2020 super cup and the 2021 cup, as well as the qualifications for the quarterfinals of the Euroleague.
The base, which in November 2021 said goodbye to the Spanish team with which it has won 12 medals, also assured that it will collaborate with the Spanish Basketball Federation. “I am a person who likes to try many things, if the body and the day give of themselves, I will try to do everything,” he said.
In the chapter of thanks, he especially remembered his parents, who did not want to miss his farewell. “Here they are once again,” she stressed. “If they hadn’t given me that body, I wouldn’t have been able to continue and if they hadn’t accompanied me, I wouldn’t have gotten that far,” she acknowledged. “They also retire,” she added.
The point guard retires with an extensive track record after 25 years as a professional player. Two and a half decades in which she has won 33 titles and a dozen medals with the Spanish team, including silver at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics (2016).
4
