Once when they were children, they invented an Olympic Games, it was 1956 and they were held in Melbourne. He decided that we had to jump, run, hockey ... everything ”. The memories of Joan Manuel Serrat's childhood neighbors in Poble-sec do not lie: his great passion was sport before music. Over time, he focused on two hobbies: soccer and cycling. Barça and the Tour.
Serrat interpreted the Cant del Barça in the inaugural act of the Centenary of the blaugrana club, from the center of the field before a fervent Camp Nou. It was November 28, 1998. His meaning for Barcelona has not only been reflected in song lyrics, such as the one dedicated to his idol Kubala or the one that recalls the lead of the Cinc Copes, metric license included. Serrat, with greater or lesser intensity, has matched his life and his professional career with the adventures of Barça in the last 70 years. He as soon as he could appear at a first team concentration in La Gavina de S'Agaró (1968) or in long interviews with a blaugrana tone in the sports press. Or accompanying the group of ex-soccer players of the club in training. With a highlight: on November 1, 1972, Serrat donned his number 9 shirt and lined up in a very special match.
That day a tribute was held at the Camp Nou to the promoters of the charity campaign of Radio Nacional de España, the then extremely popular Dalmau (Emili Fàbregas) and Joan Viñas. The former players of Barça and Madrid faced each other and Serrat was able to fulfill his dream: to line up alongside Kubala in a lead that was completed by Basora, Pereda and Manchón.
But Serrat had been injured in a previous training session (in the images the bandage on his left thigh can be seen) and not even the delicate preparation of the historic masseur Ángel Mur could prevent the participation of the Poble-sec singer from being limited to just 15 minutes. . He was replaced by Cayetano Re. Perhaps he would have resisted a little longer, but in one of the first plays he suffered in his flesh all the harshness of a veteran Real Madrid player who wasn't around for jokes or charity days. Marquitos, the grandfather of current Barcelona player Marcos Alonso, one of the toughest defenders in Spanish football, left his mark on the body of the improvised center forward.
His street playmates have also explained how Serrat cut out and collected the cycling chronicles of his childhood. Years later, under the guidance of the journalist Antonio Vallugera, Serrat made another dream come true: getting close to professional cycling. He came to act as race director in some race, he followed the Catalan Setmana collaborating with Catalunya Ràdio and, in 1984, he embarked on his final adventure: special envoy to the Tour de France, which he followed disciplinedly in a press vehicle with the aforementioned Vallugera and Javier de Dalmases, from Mundo Deportivo. Serrat rejected contracts for the month of July and dedicated it to his cycling passion, while he made a daily commentary for Radio Peninsular and wrote a column in El Periódico. In his first article, he recalled how he played with plastic cyclists in his childhood "on top of a ping-pong table in Mrs. Antonia's yard."
From that Serrat adventure, the lyrics of a song remain, which could be titled Abur, I'm going to the Tour, and sleep while waiting for music.
"If you have three free weeks and a month to throw out the window
If in your house, you are no longer interested, then the passion has changed for laziness
if they consent to his prolonged escapes and his absences no longer matter at all
It's time to start thinking about the Tour and boring, boring, boring...
If you are a man of simple habits like washing underpants at night
and they fit two long meters of that French bread in one go
leave your air of elegance at home and come shake your ass at the Tour de France”.
