A respect for the EC Europe, saint and saint of Gràcia and football in Catalonia and Spain. It was one of the ten founding teams of First, in which it played three seasons (five in Second and 57 in Third). But if anything makes this big family bigger, it's that he loves all his members and subscribers (about 1,700), which allows him to mourn the number 220 and that almost everyone knows who he was. Goodbye, Michael
The organization, which was born in 1907, will be very sorry when it learns that Antònia, the mother of another member and one of its best ambassadors, has also died. Goodbye Antonia You can play in Second RFEF, equivalent to fourth category, and not lose the greatness. This is Europe. Is it football? No, of life. This was the conclusion of more than 60 coaches from the club after recently attending conferences.
In theory, Bojan Krkic, father, and Xesco Espar talked to them about formative football. But what they were told is for life. In a match, as in life, "you can have everything in your face and get upset. You have to be prepared and, if possible, turn around the bad moment", explained Xesco Espar, who knows both sides of the trench: he was an elite handball player and coach of this section of Barça.
The audience was made up of coaches from Europe, which has 45 teams, from senior men and women to juniors and juniors. L'Òscar, the father of a player (women's football brings a lot of joy to the club), explains: "We are giving Europe our most precious asset, our daughters and sons. It is logical that we worry about training their coaches, who are often very young as well."
Footballer and father of a footballer, Bojan Krkic grew up in a country that no longer exists (Yugoslavia). With his delicious Catalan from Mollerussa, where he has roots, he gave the room a secret: "Ball, patience and getting to know 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 grassroots teams and the football school".
"Football is not a matter of life or death. It's 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 more 70,000 copies sold).
Sports 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 this also applies to the coaches, despite the fact that they are as young as those in the stands of the ACIDH association, another lighthouse in Gràcia, which works with people with disabilities and gave up its auditorium for the occasion .
In fact, this lecturer gave a piece of advice to training football coaches that is useful for any lover of his craft. "A good student doesn't just study in class. Everything you do when you're not training is what makes you a coach." This is one of the keys, he said, to entrust the passion to the players and to achieve something only within the reach of the greats: turning defeats into successes.
