16 and 17 hour workdays so that a historic match against Barça can be a celebration

TorellóThey insisted so much with the Spanish teacher that she finally gave in and granted them permission to project. the Cup draw in class. However, these draws always drag on, so the bell rang and he ran down the hall to his father's Seat, parked in front of the school. He opened YouTube on his phone and they relived one of the most special moments of his life together. "It was an explosive, crazy moment. We hugged and both cried," explains Dani Díaz Leceta (1979), the father, the delegate for Barça's opponent this Tuesday (9 p.m., Movistar) in the round of 32, Guadalajara.

"We're living almost a dream in the First Division, but it's incomparable to anything else. It's incredible," says Bruno Díaz (2009), the son, a youth player for the club and the ball boy coordinator. He admits he's "terrified" and is counting down the hours until he can pass the ball, hand to hand, to players like Jules Koundé and watch the Barça stars walk by from the doorway of his small office. "I don't think I'll ever be able to believe it," she emphasizes.

Many people have written to him asking if he could work as a ball boy. "On match days, my daughter works at the ticket booth, and now people from other classes stop her at school and come up to her asking for tickets," the father points out. Pedro Escartín will be packed like never before. He also admits that when Carles Naval, the Barça delegate, called him to introduce himself, he thought it was a joke. "The day before, they had played in the Champions League against Eintracht Frankfurt. It's a football institution. I already explained to him that they're coming to a facility that's very basic because it's so old," he says. He speaks of a "very humble" club that doesn't have the human resources to organize an event of that magnitude in seven days: "It's absolute madness, especially for the people who work behind the scenes. They're working 16 and 17-hour days."

Guadalajara has played more than fifty seasons in the Third Division and last season was promoted to the First Federation. They are seventeenth in Group 1, in the relegation zone. Guadalajara reached the Second Division from 2011 to 2013, but it remains one of the 12 Spanish provinces, out of a total of 50, that have never played in the First Division. It would be a miracle that no one expects. The journalist Oriol Jové explains to Barça in numbers which is one of the eleven provinces that Barça has never visited.

Midfielder Raúl Tavares (Madrid, 1999), one of the key players, explains that Guadalajara stays for hours to experience "a historic event. Seeing the whole city like this is incredible, unbelievable. We've hit the jackpot." Guadalajara is now a commuter town for Madrid, but he's making the return trip with Jorge Casado, a veteran defender who debuted with José Mourinho's Real Madrid and one of only five players on the team who have been professionals.

"Gerard Martín is a great guy"

Tavares grew up in Real Madrid's youth academy, "Disneyland Paris," alongside Fran García: "He's fulfilled everyone's dream." He used to go on holiday with his family to Benidorm and Cáceres. With Real Madrid, he discovered almost all of Europe, before being released as a youth player. "Cautionate in real life. I used to tell my parents that what I missed most was the podiatrist," he laughs. Like other players in the First and Second Divisions, his story hasn't been as brilliant as he envisioned, but rather a nomadic life due to the instability of that level of football, yet he's happy. He already has more than 150 appearances in the third tier, seven against Barça B. This is the first time he's spent two consecutive seasons at the same club.

In the 2022-2023 season, Tavares played for Cornellà. He didn't get to play at Camp Nou, but he did visit the Sagrada Família, so "impressive." She says it was incredibly difficult to find an apartment in Barcelona, ​​and she smiles when she talks about it. Gerard Martín, a Barcelona player, A teammate at Cornellà: "When the ball was thrown out, I wrote to him to tell him I wanted his shirt. Pedri's and his." "He's a really normal, humble guy, a great dude," he emphasizes. "One day he showed up to a team dinner wearing the shoes the AFE (Spanish Footballers' Association) gave us every year. I joked that he'd never get anywhere like that. A few weeks later he bought some nicer shoes and six months later he was in Barça B," he laughs. "We all would have loved to experience what he's experiencing. I haven't had the chance, but I still feel lucky. I wouldn't change it for anything. There are a lot of people who can't make a living doing this. I get up in the morning to do what I love. My dad gets up to climb onto a roof."