The onset of ALS forces Unzué to stop commentating on matches on DAZN

BarcelonaSports broadcasting is losing one of its most beloved names, with a strong Barcelona accent. The DAZN platform connected yesterday with Juan Carlos Unzué's home so that the former goalkeeper and coach could announce that, after three seasons, he would stop doing his technical commentary on matches. The reason is the progression of the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) that he suffers from and that, at the current stage, causes him breathing difficulties and a greater than normal effort to be able to speak. "You have given me the possibility of watching the matches with this coach's gaze," Unzué explained. "I want to announce to you that, due to a respiratory limitation that makes me need more effort to speak, I think the time has come to stop commenting on DAZN matches, no matter how serious I know it is."

DAZN will offer the complete conversation this Tuesday, conducted by the journalist Miguel Ángel Román. The announcement was actually due to be made during the game between the Blaugranas and Osasuna, but the death of Dr. Carles Miñarro – which led to the postponement of the match – also meant that the farewell of the man who has been a regular voice on FC Barcelona broadcasts was postponed.

Born in Pamplona in 1977, Juan Carlos Unzué was in goal for several First Division teams between 1986 and 2003, including Sevilla, Oviedo, Tenerife and Osasuna. During this time as a player, he also played for Barça, as Andoni Zubizarreta's understudy for two seasons at the end of the 1980s. Once he had hung up his gloves, Frank Rijkaard signed him to be his goalkeeping coach, and his successor, Josep Guardiola, kept him in the post. In the summer of 2010, he moved to Numancia in the Second Division as head coach, although four years later he returned to the Blaugrana club as assistant coach to Luis Enrique. He stayed there until 2017, heading to Galicia to be the coach of Celta de Vigo, where it was his debut as a First Division coach.

In the summer of 2020, his life changed with the diagnosis of ALS: Unzué announced that he was ending his time as a coach and that he would dedicate himself to making this rare disease more visible. With this activist hat, he has participated in multiple solidarity initiatives to raise funds for research into this type of sclerosis.