Hansi Flick, Honorary Ramblista: "I feel happy to be part of this city. Long live Barcelona!"

BarcelonaBarça coach Hansi Flick is now an Honorary Ramblista. He received the award this Monday from the Amics de la Rambla association, which also recognized art historian Judit Subirachs and the iconic Granja Viader. “I feel happy and proud to be part of this city. Long live Barça and long live Barcelona,” said Flick in a video in English—except for a “good evening everyone” and the now traditional “Long live Barça”—with Catalan subtitles that was screened at the Saló de Cent of the Barcelona City Hall, after apologizing for being unable to receive the award in person, which was collected by the first vice president of FC Barcelona, Rafael Yuste. The Barça vice president highlighted that Flick “has many values,” but that, in particular, “he is helping to recover” the values in the city that “we are lacking,” especially regarding the youth. In fact, the jury highlighted the German coach's values to award him, as well as “for filling the Rambla de Canaletes with joy and celebration with the successes achieved.”

The one who did make an appearance at the imposing Saló de Cent was art historian Judit Subirachs. Awarded for her career and, above all, for her preservation work “of the unique artist that is Josep Maria Subirachs,” she celebrated the recognition by explaining how she “deeply loves her city with all its charms and also all its drawbacks.” Subirachs described the Rambla as “the most iconic promenade of the city” and defended it “as a space of memory and artistic creation, not just a place to pass through.”

On behalf of Granja Viader, the fourth-generation owner Mercè Casademunt accepted the award, warning that there are fewer and fewer businesses left “that contribute identity and value” to the city. “We must take care of them to preserve them. Long live neighborhood commerce,” she claimed in a speech in which she described the farm as a “place of parenthesis of tasty pleasure” and thanked her son Marc for having taken the baton as the fifth generation at the head of the business. The jury of the Honorary Ramblista awards highlighted Granja Viader for its long trajectory, dating back to 1870, and “for knowing how to sweeten the lives of Barcelonians.”

The new Rambla, in February

The master of ceremonies for the event was the mayor, Jaume Collboni, who praised how the 'ramblistes' contribute “to making La Rambla, our Rambla, a place unique in the world”, and celebrated that this is the last award before unveiling the new Rambla this coming February as “a promenade with a soul”. Collboni also wanted to quote Lorca –"now that he is so fashionable”, he said– recalling how the writer described La Rambla as “the only street that I wish would never end”. The ceremony also featured an intervention by the former Minister of Universities and UAB professor, Joan Subirats, who recalled that he was born “next to La Rambla, on Carrer Hospital” and praised the promenade's ability to “not succumb and have the same shops as everywhere else”.

The person in charge of closing the awards ceremony was the president of the Amics de la Rambla association, Àlex Balletbó, who wanted to greet “all those who wanted to see Hansi Flick and were left wanting”. Beyond praising the award winners and describing La Rambla as “the first street that opens the city to the world”, Balletbó gave Collboni some homework: he asked him to reach an agreement with souvenir shops, “as they did with the terraces”. And he also warned: “We need a bit more of a sense of security when we walk along La Rambla, and sometimes it still remains dirty, despite being one of the streets in the city that is cleaned the most”.