Should all Catalans be happy about Girona’s excellent season? Understand, we are not referring to the zombie and routine flattery that serves to disguise indifference and look good in the process. That’s not being happy, it’s just doing what is expected of you. The question refers to whether those of us who are not from Girona should be overcome with a sincere expression of euphoria because their success also belongs to us. Please note that recognition of the Girona club is not optional. Even if you don’t like football, you have no choice but to take your hat off to what Míchel’s players are doing, already unqualified candidates to win the League despite Thursday’s cup failure.
Excellent news. More so when we talk about a team that still lives in full communion with the local fans, those who live in nearby streets and squares and with well-known names. The only one capable of giving a sports entity its own unrepeatable personality. Girona’s success, now halfway through the season, revives the hope of a football that is not based solely on market values.
Oh, but petrodollars are behind it!, the picky reader will say. Well no. The statement is not clouded by the fact that the person managing the management and governance of the club is the City Football Group Limited with money from the Persian Gulf. Clubs are what they are; neither what they were nor what they will be. And today, Girona is, unlike others, a city team that continues to breathe with the lungs of its neighborhood.
But recognizing these merits is not the same as feeling them as your own. It is not necessary to experience anything resembling an emotion to properly complement the protagonist of a feat. And it is in this area that an overdose of emotion more false than a Sevillian euro is detected among a good part of Catalan football fans. Let’s see, gentlemen, you are not from Girona!
Stop acting like this wedding is yours. Stop touching the glory of the people of Girona as if it belonged to you. Refrain from devaluing the deeds of others with an artificial agitation that turns each celebration into a convention of Pharisees. What makes the people of Girona truly great is that they are insanely envied, not that they are kissed to death with the aim of turning them into a second course for all those who have not been able to eat the first, the one that was served by their team. really. So let those who profess the faith of other colors get their big hands out of that wonderful stew. To console yourself what you need is the handkerchief, not the Girona. And we already understand each other.