Ferran Jutglà's most special return, the First Division footballer who knows the C-17 best

TorellóIn the 2018-2019 season, he played for Sant Andreu and earned 700 euros, which he spent almost entirely on gas. In the mornings, he took a lifeguard course at the Manlleu swimming pool, ate a packed lunch in the driver's seat of his gray Seat Ibiza at a rest stop along the C-17 highway, trained in the afternoons at the Narcís Sala stadium, and arrived back in Osona after dark. This Thursday, Ferran Jutglà returns to his old neighborhood as a Celta Vigo player. From playing for Sant Andreu against a La Liga team to playing for a La Liga team against Sant Andreu. "I'm very happy. I was really looking forward to playing Sant Andreu. It's a very special match for me," the striker from Sant Julià de Vilatorta (1999) explained to ARA, just hours before the second-round Copa del Rey match between the two sides (9 pm, Catalunya 2).

Jutglà signed for Celta this summer after three seasons with Belgian side Club Brugge because he "wanted to return to Spain." He has scored two goals and provided one assist in 732 minutes with the Balaídos-based team. In just one month, he will have savored three reunions: with Barça and Espanyol, and now with Sant Andreu. "It's wonderful to return to the places where you've played. It stirs up emotions because you remember old times and smiles come to your face," he explains. He's enjoying what has always been his dream: playing in La Liga. As a child, with that slicked-back mohawk, sometimes dyed green or red, he was possessed by an almost obsessive passion: more than once he was sent off from training, and he would storm off to the showers, angry and shouting that he didn't care about anything because he would make it to La Liga. He has achieved it, but the road hasn't been easy.

In 2012, he signed for Espanyol, but after three seasons, they released him. He was sixteen years old, and the blow still stings. He remembers crying a lot that summer, so "tough": "They're complicated times. You have to try to overcome it, be mentally strong, and be clear that if you want something, no matter how many setbacks you suffer, you have to get up quickly and come back." He had learned that at home: the 2007 crisis forced his father's pastry shop to close. Sometimes it was hard to make ends meet. His first year as a youth player, he played for Vic Riuprimer. They trained one or two days a week. "For me, football wasn't that important at that time," he says sighingly. The following year, he played for Bellvitge in the División de Honor (the top youth league): he would travel from his village to Vic on a 49cc scooter and from Vic to Barcelona by train. When the league ended, he played several matches with Sant Julià. He played as a winger for the first team in the Catalan Third Division, the second-to-last tier, and as a center-back or midfielder for the youth team, with his "friends," just for fun. "It was a time when I didn't know what to do, whether to keep playing football or not, or where to go," he says. "I imagined myself coaching and playing matches in the Catalan First Division or the Third Division. The goal was to survive, to be able to do something I enjoyed, to try to make a living from sports," he admits. It was 2017. A little over eight years ago. He was 18.

Ferran Jutglà: a career built on hard knocks

When Sant Andreu's youth team called him, he thought it was a joke. He played half a year at Narcís Sala and in the winter of 2018 made the leap to Valencia. He signed a year-and-a-half contract, but after six months they told him he wasn't good enough. Another rejection, another blow, "back to square one." Hearing that he wouldn't make it, that he was finished. But that summer he signed for Espanyol B and returned to Sant Andreu on loan. That season he played against Atlético de Madrid in the Copa del Rey and passed his lifeguard certification. He worked at the swimming pools in Torelló, Sant Julià, and Vilanova de Sau. It was 2019. Six years ago. A few days ago he went to see the Segunda Catalana match between Torelló and Sant Julià. From the field you can see the pool where he used to work. He's often seen in the stands at Catalan football matches: "I like grassroots football, at these levels."

From 2019 to 2021, he played for Espanyol B, and in 2021 he arrived at Barça. He started with the Barça reserve team and on December 12th, he broke into the first team under Xavi Hernández. He played nine matches across La Liga, the Copa del Rey, and the Supercopa, scoring two goals. Looking back, he feels "happiness," perhaps more than ever, but he prefers to look ahead. In the winter transfer window, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Ferran Torres, and Adama Traoré arrived, closing the door on a move to Camp Nou. He was the top scorer in the Primera Federación. In the summer of 2022, he signed for Club Brugge for five million euros, with a contract worth one and a half million euros per season. At Espanyol B, he earned just over 25,000 euros. He made his Champions League debut.

From Vigo, he smiles happily, proud of a long and arduous journey: "It's been hard. Nobody's given me anything. I'm very proud of everything I've been through to get where I am." This Thursday he'll return to the Narcís Sala stadium. Without the gray Seat Ibiza, without the ladder at some gas station on the C-17 to grab a packed lunch. But the Seat Ibiza is still in his mind and in his garage at home. It's the car he uses every time he goes back to Sant Julià.