Girona is the team of the moment. The fashion team. The team everyone is talking about. His great start to the season, with 19 points out of a possible 21 - still unbeaten, not even during the pre-season - and having strung together six consecutive triumphs, catapulted him to the highest place in the Primera standings, leader in solitary for the first time in its 93-year history. A success that can be explained by the good work done during the last decade at all levels, starting with the lawn and ending with the offices. Below we look at the main people responsible who have allowed Girona to stop fighting like any Second Division team to become the best team in the League and one of the best football players today.
Michel Sanchez
Coach
■Main architect of making the team shine on the pitch. A specialist in promoting all the clubs he has coached to the First Division, such as Osca or his Rayo, after a 20-year career as a player, Míchel managed to do the same managing Girona in his first year at the club (2021). And despite always being terminated after a few months of reaching the top category, in Montilivi he made history last year by achieving a commendable tenth position which he is on his way to surpassing this year. With a colorful and attractive football that everyone praises, Míchel put the fans in his pocket from the first day by learning Catalan and answering in that language to the questions of journalists in the press room as a sign of integration and respect towards Catalan culture. Girona renewed him when the results were still not as expected and the coach of Vallecas has returned this confidence 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
Sports director
■Quique Cárcel has become the architect of the best Girona in history by making templates during the last decade, in which the team has competed for four seasons in Primera, achieved two promotions and remained at the gates in another four occasions, eliminated in the lottery of the playoffs. An ex-footballer trained in the lower categories of Barça, he played for 9 seasons at l'Hospitalet, where he also began his career as sporting director after retiring and just before signing for Girona. He has recently renewed his association with the club until 2027 with a desire to continue for as many years as possible while continuing to have the support of an ownership he remains comfortable with after so many years of working together. Without him, footballers such as Stuani, Oriol Romeu, David López or Bernardo would not have experienced a second youth in Montilivi nor would they have grown and exploited other younger players such as Porro, Baena, Riquelme, Bueno or Maffeo.
Geli Dolphin
President
■ Institutional president of the club since the summer of 2015. Born in Girona, Geli symbolizes and represents all the values that the club wants to convey. Like Míchel and Quique Cárcel, Geli was also a professional footballer in the past, in his case practically starting his career in Girona's base football and ending it in the first team, where he played for five seasons. In between, Geli had an outstanding career in elite football, during the nineties, and was part of several First Division teams such as Barça, Albacete, Atlético de Madrid or Alabès, a fact that gave him gave the opportunity to even become an absolute Spanish international. After retiring and before assuming the position of president, he regained his association with the club as coach of the lower categories.
Ferran Soriano
Conseller delegat del City Football Group
■CEO of the City Football Group, the football holding company created around Manchester City which landed in Girona in 2017 and which later became the main shareholder of the entity with almost half of the shares, today 47%. Renowned Catalan executive, his leap from the world of business to sport took place 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 occupying for three years the presidency of Spanair, in 2012 he decided to return to the world of football through Manchester City .
Marcelo Claure
owner
■American-Bolivian businessman who in the summer of 2020 entered Girona guided by Ferran Soriano acquiring a shareholding package, until then in the hands of Pere Guardiola, who has made him the second largest owner with 35% of the actions. Claure, with a long and prestigious business career, has always shown a great passion for football, as evidenced by his association with Club Bolívar, the most successful club in his country, of which he is the largest shareholder. Previously, Claure had also been part of Inter Miami, of the MLS, as co-owner of the club together with David Beckham and the Mas brothers.
Pere Guardiola
owner
■Brother of ex-footballer and current manager of Manchester City, Pep Guardiola, Pere Guardiola also came to Montilivi in 2017 as a shareholder, together with the City group, despite the fact that he was subsequently left with only 16% of the total to take up the position of president of the Board of Directors from 2020. With an extensive career at Nike, where he spent 12 years managing the sponsorships of the sports brand and of several footballers such as Ronaldo or Ronaldinho, he decided leaving it in 2009 to found, together with Jaume Roures' Mediapro company, his own representation agency, Media Base Sports, through which footballers such as Andrés Iniesta, Luis Suárez and Thiago Alcántara passed. Among other things, his figure has been key to the fact that Girona has recently been able to close signings such as the outstanding Ukrainian talents Dovbyk or Tsygankov.
Ignasi Mas-Bagà
Director general
■After an initial stage at Media Sports Marketing, one of the subsidiaries of Mediapro, participating in the consultancy and organization of international tours of major European football clubs, Mas-Bagà joined Girona in 2015, as to CEO of the club and only 30 years old. In this way, he becomes the first executive to arrive at Montilivi in this new stage, coinciding with Girona's exit from the bankruptcy proceedings and putting the final point on the old property headed by the Girona businessman Josep Delgado.
