A classic goal. One of those that became famous in Barcelona in the 70s and 80s. A goal like the ones that greeted most of the buildings of the powerful construction company Núñez y Navarro. A goal, a transistor and 35 protagonists, including journalists, leaders and footballers, who reveal the figure of a Barça president and businessman who left his mark: Josep Lluís Núñez. Or José Luis. In this recreated space, the documentary series Núñez begins, a very complete review of four chapters, rich in anecdotes and explanations and that accurately and carefully portrays the leader's more than two decades at the helm of the Blaugrana club. It can be seen for a few days on the Televisió de Catalunya 3Cat platform.
It is not trivial that the series begins by remembering the call from Catalunya Ràdio to Núñez himself in which he pretends to be the doorman of his property (without changing his voice or his usual linguistic expressions) in order not to intervene in the program. “It was an idea of mine and the screenwriter, Ramon Pardina. At first it was like an anecdote and, later, also as a paradigmatic example of Núñez's humble origins, who always talked about his goalkeeper when explaining that there were signings that anyone would make," the director of the series explains to this newspaper. , Jordi Call.
Because, as the title of the first chapter says, Núñez “was not a dels nostres.” That is to say, he was a businessman with roots in the Basque Country, who did not connect with Catalanism and who was not well regarded by the wealthy classes of Barcelona. All in a historical context in which the transition emerged.
That is why the series abounds in his arrival to the presidency of the club after the elections of May 6, 1978, elections in which Convergència already plays its cards, first with Víctor Sagi, who retired, and then with Ferran Ariño, to try to control Barça and let Núñez not do it. An operation that was repeated in 1989 with Sixte Cambra, which the builder also defeated. Along the way, a handful of episodes with Núñez and the president of the Generalitat, Jordi Pujol, who is also one of those interviewed in the series, as protagonists. Although the person who has the most influence on these disputes between Pujol and Núñez is the Barcelona manager of the moment, Anton Parera. When asked if Pujol helped the club in his role as leader of the Generalitat, Parera answers: "Yes, he helped sink it." According to who was one of the strong men of the builder behind the cry “Neeskens yes, Núñez, no”, which occurred in the Plaza de Sant Jaume in 1979 after the final of the Cup Winners' Cup in Basel, there were also the threads of Convergència. That caused Núñez's first threat to resign, a threat that would be repeated shortly before the Wembley final in 1992.
For Jordi Call, one of the episodes that best describes Núñez's way of ruling is the rescue operation of striker Enrique Castro, Quini, after his kidnapping. "How the rescue was carried out caught my attention, with the president on the front line, with Quini's daughter going to live at Joan Gaspart's house, making a footballer like Alexanco negotiate and with the cameras on the matter."
Troubled times, also dotted with triumphs but also full of controversies. The arrival and departure of Maradona, the Venables League, the bitter final of the European Cup in Seville... That cursed night for Barcelona fans (May 7, 1986) some Barça leader even happened to pass by head the possibility of buying the match against a Steaua Bucharest controlled by the sons of the dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. “We were right not to do it, although I'm so crazy…” says Gaspart. This is explained in chapter 2. In chapter 4 there is another anecdote worth seeing that Gaspart and Parera point out around the 1994 final in Athens, another day to be forgotten. Between both finals, the Hesperia mutiny and Cruyff's Dream Team, with its successes and ups and downs. Also rich in archive images and interviews, the documentary remembers how Núñez saved Johan when the compromising partners asked for his head. Years later, the sports divorce between the two was public. Two essential figures of Barcelona fans who have marked the club, with their supporters and detractors to this day. “Núñez was versatile, a businessman and leader very much from the 20th century, the reflection of an era, he has a personalist style, but at the same time also very innovative,” concludes Jordi Call.
