"It was an earthquake, a shock, a tremendous reality check," explains journalist Sergio Cortina, reliving Oviedo's fall: from the First and even European divisions to the Third, to being one inch away from disappearing. This Thursday, the Asturian team hosts Barça again, 25 seasons after the last two matches: a 2-3 win for Barça at the Tartiere and a 0-1 loss for Asturias at the Camp Nou, with Carles Rexach in the dugout and Richard Dutruel in goal. Other times. That ordeal led Oviedo to play against teams from neighborhoods in the city or surrounding towns, even on dirt fields turned into mudflats. In 2013, they lost 4-1 to Sporting Gijón's reserve team. In 2014, by 1 to 4.

Only Horacio Gaggioli, Josep Maria Minguella and Carles Rexach know what exactly happened at a table on the terrace of the Reial Societat de Tenis Pompeia chalet on December 14, 2000. No one else was present during the supposed three-way signing of the napkin role that has remained in the history of Barça as the piece that morally confirmed (it did not have legal validity) the arrival of Leo Messi to Barça at 13 years old. The story has always been that this action served to reassure the Messi family, staying at the Hotel Catalonia Barcelona Plaza at that time, given the doubts that the club had regarding the signing of the Argentine. But sources from the Messi family explain to ARA that at that time they did not have access to this napkin, which It is topical again because it is being auctioned at Bonhams.