Embers, sand and tractor ruts: Lleida is reborn from the catacombs

Sunyer"People have been talking about it in the village for weeks. It's historic for Lleida to make its debut in our home," said a busy Ivan Borrell, president of Sunyer, the modest team from a small Segrià village of 310 inhabitants, surrounded by fruit tree crops, especially peach trees. "Since it wasn't raining here, on Saturday afternoon we leveled the sand on the pitch. We did it with some bars that we dragged with a tractor." On Sunday at noon, hours before the match, Ivan painted the lines of the playing field with chalk.

The seventh Catalan football club with the most members

"There is a bucolic touch to starting over on a dirt field. It feels scripted. The metaphor of playing in the mud is literal," commented Juanjo Lecumberri, vice president of Lleida CF. Son of a legendary former player for UE Lleida, he is one of the main people responsible for the club's rebirth from the very bottom.

After years of carrying debts and administrative relegations, the bankruptcy made the survival of the old club impossible, which last year played in Tercera RFEF, the Fifth Division. This Sunday it made its debut in group 29 of Quarta Catalana, the lowest category of regional football. He is clear that they want to climb divisions without buying spots.

"It is a new Lleida that aims to be the Lleida of always, the one that was in the First Division", he said. That is why it has recovered the symbols of the entity: name, crest, anthem, historical heritage and stadium, the Camp d'Esports. The main singularity is that it is a popular shareholding club, it is owned by the members. And it already has more than 4,000. Only Barça, Espanyol, Girona, Sabadell, Nàstic and Sant Andreu have more: "It's madness. Lleida hadn't approached these figures for twenty years, the last season in the Second Division".

Grilled tripe and black pudding

An hour and a half before the start of the match, the first Lleida fans began to arrive. Those from Sunyer, all dressed in red, had been there for a while, taking advantage of the fact that at the field's bar they were serving grilled food, tripe, and other homemade specialties. Around a thousand spectators gathered at the Sunyer venue, which sold out its tickets, sold online, in a couple of days.

Exceptionally, the club charged five euros to cover the cost of security personnel and the rental of portable toilets and fences to delimit the space. "There is no room for more people," specified Onofre, who was helping with logistics as a volunteer: "I am a member of both Sunyer and Lleida."

At five o'clock sharp, the visiting team took to the field, where tractor ruts in red and black could still be seen. They did so captained by Óscar Rubio, who debuted with Lleida in 2003 and has accumulated more than 300 matches in blue. The son of another club legend, he decided to drop down to the catacombs of football for the love of the team's colors. He greeted Ivan Borrell, who besides being president is also the captain of Sunyer, and one of the people responsible for the town having a football team again 18 years later.

Dropping five categories for love

Joan Rusiñol could not play, as he was injured. Last May he was competing in the Tercera RFEF and, like Rubio, he has dropped five divisions to play for free with Lleida. "I have been going to the Camp d'Esports with my father my whole life; Lleida is the club of my life. I prefer to play in the Fourth division with the team I am a fan of rather than leave for another place to earn 700 or 800 euros. It is a decision I made from the heart," Rusi explained over the phone. He could not attend the debut because he was on shift until mid-afternoon. He is a local police officer: "I am saving my vacation days for when I am recovered."

On the pitch, Ivan Borrell, who is an experienced center-back, had a hard time with Xavi Martínez, the first official goalscorer of the new Lleida. The new project started with a scare because Sunyer took the lead with a great goal from Robert Besó, who struck the ball from 25 meters out: "Scoring against Lleida and in front of the whole town... It's the goal of my life". He was almost as happy as the owner of the raffle ticket with the number 8032, the winner of the draw.

"He'll become famous, since TV3 has come," commented a fan wearing a retro Kappa shirt, the iconic brand that is once again dressing the most popular team in the 'terra ferma'. More than one was surprised by the media buzz of a match that dozens of people, without tickets, experienced from outside the venue. "This gives us life. We couldn't let the club die," said another visiting supporter, a regular at the north goal of the Camp d'Esports. "I've been coming here for more than twenty years, and I've only experienced misfortunes. Relegations, liquidations... But it's enough for me to be able to be here every fortnight". Next Sunday he will be able to return.

While the most spirited sang the Virolai, Adri Fernández, who trained in the UE Lleida youth academy and played in blue in Segunda B, scored the second. Already in the second half, the fourth and the fifth. "Even if you score a hat-trick in these categories, you can't take the ball home, or else they'll be missed," joked the forward, the hero of the 2-5 victory on a sunny and festive Sunday afternoon on the sand of Sunyer, the field where Lleida began to rewrite its history.