Born in Girona and recruited by Barcelona for its lower categories when he was 16 years old, Pau García Castany did not have the opportunities he would have wanted at the Blaugrana club. He made his way in football with notable success at Zaragoza and from 1971 to 1978 he was a vital part of the great team called the Zaraguayos, under the wise technical direction of Luis Cid Carriega.
García Castany was a midfielder with a goal, a right-footed midfielder, 8 behind his back, who had arrived and became one of the playmakers of that Aragonese team that the Paraguayans Lobo Diarte, Nino Arrúa, Felipe Ocampos popularized above all. .
His father, Pablo García del Amo, had been president of Girona in the 1950s but he did not see this dedication to football with good eyes, and when he found out from the press that his son had passed tests in Barcelona, he imposed that he should continue his studies college students García Castany studied Law, Tourism and three years of Journalism. "I think I more than kept my word," he explained in an interview.
After passing through Condal and some transfers (to Osasuna and Calvo Sotelo), García Castany made his debut for Barcelona in October 1969, in a Fairs Cup match played in Odense (0-2). Shortly after he ran into Rinus Michels (and the competition of footballers of the stature of Asensi, Martí Filosia, Marcial...) and taking advantage of the fact that the military service sent him to Zaragoza, he ended up settling in La Romareda.
At Zaragoza he became essential, an eternal starter except for injuries, with some particularly well-known performances. He liked to highlight three games in particular, all at La Romareda: the three goals he scored against Real Madrid in a historic 6-1 win in April 1975 (“and I scored two with my left foot!”, he recalled), the other three that he nailed to the untouchable Iríbar in a 3-2 against Athletic in November 1972 and the unstoppable double against Barça by Cruyff and Sotil in November 1973, in a 2-2 that coincided with Migueli's controversial debut in Barcelona, when the ceutí skipped the military jurisdiction and ended up arrested. “We were a sensational team, very good, but we lacked a title to be better remembered”. That Zaragoza finished third in 1974, runner-up the following year and Cup runner-up in 1976. He had no luck. At a time when defenders defended and attackers attacked, he, a pure midfielder, defined himself as "a fighter on two fronts, a worker with artistry".
When in August 1978 a serious knee injury in a pre-season friendly separated him from the elite, Garcia Castany still played for Girona and Banyoles and began to dedicate himself fully to the legal profession, specializing in immigration and aliens. His wife, Inmaculada Cabecerán, was the founder of the women's club at Christmas 1970 and he was a member involved in the Agrupació Barça Players. García Castany always considered himself a Blaugrana at heart, but eternally linked and grateful to Zaragoza. “I'm Catalan and Barça will always be Barça”, he explained, “but with Zaragoza we were runners-up, I lived some wonderful years and played with sensational footballers”. Pau García Castany died last Thursday at the age of 73 after a long illness.
