Manolo del Bombo, the most unusual fan of Spanish football, dies.
Known for his drum, he lived for many years in Valencia, a city where he used to go to the local club's matches.
BarcelonaManuel Cáceres Artesero, known as Manolo del Bombo, died this Thursday at the age of 76 in Villarreal. Considered the most unusual fan in Spanish football, he used to accompany the national team with a drum that he had lost more than once. Cáceres died in a Villarreal hospital after spending several days in the hospital with respiratory problems.
Born in San Carlos de Valle, a village in Ciudad Real, in 1949, he grew up in Huesca, where he began cheering on the local team. In 1976, he made his first trip with the Spanish national team and never stopped. He then moved to Zaragoza, where he also cheered for the local team, and finally to Valencia, where he became a member of the local club and opened a bar. Cáceres experienced the 1982 World Cup firsthand and decided he didn't want to miss out on anything else: he went to Mexico in 1986, Italy in 1990, the United States in 1992, France in 1998, Korea and Japan in 2002, Germany in 2006 and 2014, and Russia in 2018.
By 2020, he had closed his bar, Tu Museo Deportivo, and was in a "very bad" financial situation, in his own words. In 2022, he couldn't attend the World Cup in Qatar. The Spanish Football Federation provided him with tickets for the matches and flights, but not accommodation, which is essential to enter the country.