Curiosity always lies in the ball
Magico Gonzalez
————————
This Wednesday, 55 referees in 55 Catalan soccer fields will synchronize to blow the initial whistle.
Start the MIC!
I ask Juanjo Rovira (62):
–What does MIC mean exactly?
(Juanjo Rovira is the president of the massive children’s and youth soccer tournament, he will have to know what MIC means, I tell myself…).
–In its origins, in 2001, the MIC was the Mundialito of the Canary Islands. But when we brought it to Catalonia, in 2002, we turned it into the Mediterranean International Cup.
And so the name has remained, MIC, that tournament that all kids who value themselves as soccer players want to play: 412 teams from 39 countries, five continents, occupy 8,000 boarding houses on the Catalan coast in a tournament that covers more than a thousand games in five days.
Juanjo Rovira sings numbers and the man doesn’t flinch: sitting in the cafeteria of the Junior 1917 club, in Sant Cugat del Vallès, downing a Cacaolat while we contemplate it, Pau Venteo by my side.
(Pau Venteo, who was an international water polo player and today is a photographer for La Vanguardia, is overcome by universal curiosity: it has been a while since he portrayed the character, but here he is still, listening in silence.)
Juanjo Rovira pronounces last names.
The kid Messi, the kid Piqué, the kid Neymar, the kid Pedri, the kid Alisson and the kids Lamine Yamal and Cubarsí, who are still kids, have passed through the MIC (between twelve and 19 years old).
For the little boy Juan Mata, who played in Oviedo’s youth ranks, everything went well and, at the end of the tournament, the scouts came to talk to his parents and the Real Madrid team that left.
–And Arsenal signed Bellerín –Juanjo Rovira told me, who had been a regional footballer and regional coach and one day he had conspired with his friends Josep Colomé and Pere Gratacós to bring them all together, kids from modest clubs and kids from football. elite, in the same pension, in the same locker room, on the same playing field.
–And that’s how kids from Ajax Amsterdam and the Brazilian and Qatar teams ended up asking for the same room in a hotel for a different use. Brazilians, to talk about football; the Qataris, to pray; the Dutch, to study.
–Do so many scouts look into the MIC stands?
–Maneeeeee, we make it easy for them that way, right? Imagine: scouts sit on a field and, in one go, contemplate and analyze many footballers. What’s more, if these scouts identify themselves, we provide them with the team lists and a range of data.
And throw more names:
-Sergi Roberto (Santes Creus Reus), Sergio Busquets (Jabac Terrassa) have passed through here…
–And any that fascinated you?
–Do you remember Gai Assulin?
I put on a poker face.
I do not remember.
Today, Gai Assulin plays for Unipominezia Virtus, in the Italian Serie D.
–I was in the stands of the L’Estartit field. I saw him play. Gai Assulin was a short, hairy, media player at the time, and I told the field director: ‘He is very good.’ Anyway, he didn’t come to fruition.
(At the beginning in 2008, Assulin was talked about as the new Messi; in the end, injuries undermined him).
–And, if Japanese and African kids face each other on the field, can you notice the difference between each other’s soccer?
–The Japanese is structured and the African is just the opposite, it is self-confidence, street football. I even see it in the coaches’ slogans. Life is transferred to football.
–And the Europeans?
–They move in an intermediate way, they are more tactical, it can be seen in the level of their trainers. Although within Europeans there are also differences. Germans, Dutch and Belgians are more squared, more rigid. Mediterranean people surrender more to inspiration.
–And what does football give kids?
–In Africa it is their salvation, the way to make the jump to a European club and build a financial future. Here it is a passion that everyone likes because, everyone at their level, everyone can play it.
–¿…?
–In basketball, handball or athletics there are physical limitations, nothing to do with football.
