A respect for the CE Europa, watchword of the Gràcia neighborhood and a history of football in Catalonia and Spain. It was one of the ten founding teams of Primera, in which it played three seasons (five in Second and 57 in Third). But if something makes this great family great, it is that it loves all its members and subscribers (about 1,700), which allows the number 220 to cry and for almost everyone to know who he was. Goodbye, Miquel.
The entity, which was founded in 1907, will be very sorry when it learns that Antonia, the mother of another partner and one of its best ambassadors, has also died. Goodbye, Antonia. You can play in the Second RFEF, equivalent to the fourth category, and not lose your greatness. This is Europe. A football club? No, of life. That was the conclusion of more than 60 of their coaches after attending recent conferences.
In theory, Bojan Krkic, father, and Xesco Espar spoke to them about youth football. But what they told them is useful for life. In a game, as in life, “you can have everything in your face and be upset. You have to be prepared and, if possible, turn it around,” explained Xesco Espar, who knows both sides of the trench: he was an elite handball player and award-winning coach of this section of FC Barcelona.
The audience was made up of coaches from Europe, which has 45 teams, from the senior men's and women's teams to the juniors and juniors. Òscar, the father of a player (women's football brings a lot of joy to the club), explains: “We give Europe our most precious asset, our daughters and sons. It is logical that we worry about training their coaches, who are often also very young.”
Footballer and father of a footballer, Bojan Krkic grew up in a country that no longer exists (Yugoslavia). With his delicious Catalan from Mollerusa, where he put down roots, he gave the room a secret: “Ball, patience and knowing the children.” The clubs, added Jordi Marí, member of the board of directors, “are proud of their first teams, but you and your players embody our essence: the base teams and the football school.”
“Football is not a matter of life or death. It is much more important than that,” said a legendary Liverpool manager, the great Bill Shankly (1913-1981). The important thing is to live, says Xesco Espar, who is still married to success, but now away from the courts and the benches, as a lecturer, leadership trainer and author of best-selling books (Jugar con el corazón has accumulated editions and 70,000 copies sold).
Athlete girls and boys should learn to play as they should learn to live, insists Xesco Espar. “Performance in sport and in everything depends on the same thing: talent, motivation, effort.” And that also goes for the coaches, even if they are as young as those in the audience of another lighthouse in the neighborhood, the ACIDH association, which works with people with disabilities and gave up its auditorium.
In fact, this speaker gave advice to youth soccer coaches that is useful for any lover of their job. “A good student does not study only in class. Everything you do when you are not training is what makes you a coach.” That is one of the keys, he assured, to infect the players with passion and to achieve something only within the reach of the greats: turning defeats into successes.
