Girona is the team of the moment. The fashion team. The team that everyone talks about. His great start to the season, with 19 points out of a possible 21 – without yet knowing defeat, not even during the preseason – and having chained six consecutive wins, has catapulted him to the highest place in the Primera classification, solo leader for the first time. once in its 93-year history. A success that is explained by the good work done over the last decade at all levels, starting with the grass and ending with the offices. Below we put a face to the main people responsible who have allowed Girona to stop fighting like any Second Division team until becoming the best team in the League and one of those that plays the best football.
Main architect of making the team shine on the field of play. A specialist in promoting all the clubs he has coached to First Division, such as Huesca or Rayo, after a 20-year career as a player, Míchel managed to do the same by managing Girona in his first year at the club (2021). And, despite being dismissed, always a few months after reaching the top category, in Montilivi he changed his destiny and made history last year, achieving a creditable tenth position that this year he is on track to surpass. With a colorful and attractive football that everyone praises, Míchel put the fans in his pocket from the first day by learning and responding in Catalan to the journalists' questions in the press room as a sign of integration and respect towards the Catalan culture. Girona renewed him when the results were still not as expected and the Vallecas coach has returned this trust by extending his contract a few months ago until 2026. If the team continues to perform at this level, retaining him will not be an easy job.
Quique Cárcel has become the architect of the best Girona in history, putting together squads over the last decade with which he has competed four seasons in the First Division, has achieved two promotions and has come close on four other occasions, being eliminated in the playoffs. A former footballer trained in the Barça youth ranks, he played for nine seasons at l'Hospitalet where he began his career as sports director once he retired and just before signing for Girona. He recently renewed until 2027 with the desire to continue for as many years as possible while still having the support of an ownership that he remains comfortable with after so many years of working together. Without him, footballers like Stuani, Oriol Romeu, David López or Bernardo would not have lived a second youth in Montilivi nor would younger players like Porro, Baena, Riquelme, Bueno or Maffeo have grown and exploited.
Institutional president since the summer of 2015. Born in Girona, Geli symbolizes and represents all the values that the club wants to transmit. Like Míchel and Quique Cárcel, Geli was also a footballer in the past, in his case starting his career in Girona's youth football team and finishing it in the first team, where he played five seasons. Geli had an outstanding career in elite football in the 1990s, playing for several First Division teams such as Barça, Albacete, Atlético de Madrid and Alavés, a fact that gave him the opportunity to even become a full Spanish international. After his retirement and before assuming the position of president, he regained his connection with the club as a coach of the lower categories.
General director of the City Football Group, the football holding company created around Manchester City that landed in Girona in 2017 and later became the main shareholder of the entity with almost half of the shares, today 47%. A renowned Catalan executive, his jump from the business world to sports occurred in 2003, as a member of Joan Laporta's candidacy to preside over Barça. And thanks to his victory in the elections, Soriano assumed the economic vice presidency until 2008. After serving as president of Spanair for three years, in 2012 he decided to return to the world of baseball through Manchester City.
North American-Bolivian businessman who entered Girona in the summer of 2020 with Ferran Soriano, acquiring a share package, until then in the hands of Pere Guardiola, which has made him the second largest owner with 35% of the shares. Claure, with a long business career, has always shown a great passion for football as demonstrated by his involvement with Club Bolívar, the most successful club in his country, of which he is the largest shareholder. Previously, Claure was also part of Inter Miami, of the MLS, as co-owner of the club along with David Beckham and the Mas brothers.
Brother of Pep Guardiola, now Manchester City coach, Pere Guardiola arrived at Montilivi in 2017 as a shareholder, along with the City group, although he later kept only 16% of the total to become president of the board of directors. administration from 2020. With an extensive career at Nike, where he spent 12 years managing sponsorships for the sports brand and for several footballers such as Ronaldo and Ronaldinho, he decided to leave it in 2009 to found, together with Jaume Roures' company Mediapro, his own representation agency, Media Base Sports, where footballers of the caliber of Andrés Iniesta, Luis Suárez and Thiago Alcántara passed through. Among other things, his figure has been key for Girona to have recently been able to close signings such as the Ukrainian talents Dovbyk or Tsygankov.
After an initial stage in Media Sports Marketing, one of Mediapro's subsidiaries, participating in advising and organizing international tours of large European football clubs, Mas-Bagà joined Girona in 2015, as CEO of the club and with only 30 years. In this way he becomes the first executive to arrive at Montilivi in this new stage, coinciding with Girona's exit from bankruptcy and putting an end to the former ownership headed by Girona businessman Josep Delgado.
