"I hope that in 10 years my Catalan will be better than my Spanish, which is horrible."

Barcelona"Good morning, everyone. I hope you understand me. I'm sorry, but that's all I can say to you today in Catalan. I only know a little." Thus, with an apology for not mastering the language of Catalonia, he began his first public address as a speaker. new owner of Espanyol American Alan Pace, who voluntarily answered the press's questions in Spanish and not in English, his native language. "I hope that in 10 or 20 years my Catalan will be better than my Spanish, which is horrible," added the majority shareholder of the Blue and Whites, laughing, worried about making himself understood and surprised by the expectation generated by his first appearance, with more than 50 accredited journalists.

The first barrier that Pace breaks

Although he will continue to live with his family in Burnley, from where he manages the Premier League club, which he also owns under the Velocity Sports Partners (VSP) umbrella, Pace plans to be much closer to Espanyol than the former majority shareholder: "I'll be very involved with Barcelona, ​​but I won't be in charge of the day-to-day running of the club."

In Chen Yansheng, who lives in China and hasn't visited Cornellà-El Prat since September 2022, was always criticized for the geographical, cultural, and linguistic distance (he only communicated in Chinese) that separated him from the club, one of the reasons for his progressive distancing from the social mass. And Alan Pace, who in three months has already seen more matches live than his predecessor, wants to break with all this. He doesn't promise the Champions League as Chen did upon his arrival, but he did verbalize that he would like to establish the club among the top 6 of La Liga and that in five years he would like to see it in Europe.

The effort of answering journalists in Spanish and communicate on the networks in Catalan goes in the direction of getting closer to the fans: "They are essential. At Burnley, before each match I am talking to them outside the stadium. I want to listen to them, for me it is very important to be close to you." At Espanyol he does exactly the same, and on the days he goes to the Cornellà-El Prat box, the hashtag#rcde is flooded with selfies of blue and white followers with him; as happens when JJ Whatt appears, Pace's media partner who Espanyol goes viral with a beer in hand.

The excitement of returning to Barcelona

"He is a very friendly and approachable person, and he transfers that to the places where he works," confirms an old friend he made in pre-Olympic Barcelona, when he was studying a master's degree at IESE and he played American football on the Júpiter sand field with the Búfalos de Poblenou. His teammates still remember the cookies that his wife, Kristen, used to take them after matches; also the day they told him to move and he showed up wearing a trench coat and cowboy boots: "I looked like Clint Eastwood!" It was then that Pace fell in love with Barcelona and began to speak Catalan – the vast majority of his friends were Catalan speakers – during a time that marked him deeply and that has been decisive in his decision to choose the perico club – he had in mind to buy Espanyol since 2022 – from among all the Spanish clubs that he had been offered.

"This is a dream. In 1991, I came to live in Barcelona with my wife two weeks after we got married. And more than 30 years later, I'm back. It's like a second honeymoon! The people I met opened the doors of their homes to me and made me feel part of their family, they're declared." who has been able to, has found an excuse to visit the Catalan capital and has cultivated these friendships from a distance, when he returned to the United States and now from England.

"We can go for long periods without speaking, but every year he sends me a letter to explain how life is going for the Pace family: his job changes, how his three girls are growing, that he recently became a grandfather... It's a detail that defines him as what he is, a loyal and very family-oriented guy," reveals one of the exes. In fact, one of the first things he did when he arrived at Espanyol was to invite a small group of friends from Barcelona to watch the match in a private box. match against Atlético de Madrid.

Few organizational chart changes

"He's thoughtful, not impulsive. I don't think he'd burn everything down even if he started a revolution," say those who have known him for a long time. It's the same perception that exists in the Sant Adrià offices, where they believe Pace won't cut anyone's head or make any structural changes, at least for a few months, once he's had a thorough analysis of each department. For now, he won't even replace the CEO, Mao Ye, the representative of Chen and Rastar. The American businessman will be the majority shareholder and president, Garagarza remains in charge of sporting management, and Barcelona-born Antonio Dávila, a professor at IESE and a manager at Burnley, will be a member of the board of directors. Meanwhile, Australian Brad Spiby, who also completed a master's degree in Barcelona, ​​will be the extension of Alan Pace and VSP to the club: "He's my right-hand man, part of our group. He'll always be here and will help with communications and planning."

Pace understands that language proficiency is essential and will take it "little by little." "I don't want to bring in anyone who doesn't speak the same language as their coworkers," the American owner of Espanyol concluded with common sense. He arrives with his lesson well learned: he wants to learn Catalan and conveys an empathy that hasn't been evident in Cornellà-El Prat for some time.