More than half a life at the service of Barça

Barcelona"Naval, 71, arrived at FC Barcelona in 1972 –more than 54 years ago– and began working as the first team delegate in the 1986-87 season. He has lived with a great number of coaches and players, and has become a true institution. Four decades alongside the team, sharing the dressing room, experiences and moments that are part of the club's history. And still today, he is a key piece in the dressing room". This is how the commemoration act of Carles Naval's 40 years as first team delegate was summarized on the Barça website. More than half a life at the service of the club of his loves and for as long as his strength continues.

The long list of anecdotes and experiences that the Lleida native has lived in the first person make him a living legend of Barça. Loved by the players, Naval has lived through the evolution of this sport and has always known how to maintain his role in the locker room. His arms have embraced all the stars of Barça, the latest of whom is Lamine Yamal. The current blaugrana number 10 gave him, together with the coach, Hansi Flick; the president, Joan Laporta, and the sporting director, Deco –whom Naval had already dealt with as a player, of course–, a plaque and a commemorative jersey at the Camp Nou in September, before the match against Racing de Santander. The rest of the players and the delegate's family were also there, proudly attending the commemoration.

Naval has been a witness to the best eras of Barça, from the Dream Team to that of Lamine Yamal, passing through the trebles of Pep Guardiola –with the unforgettable 2-6 at the Bernabéu– and Luis Enrique, and the emergence of Leo Messi, to mention just a few of the great contemporary moments of the club. He has lived through the five Champions League titles that the organization has won: "I didn't win them, as I wasn't playing," he joked in a conversation with ARA. "It was the squad that broke the ice and took that weight off the club. If you then review all the squads, there have been some very good ones, but they didn't have the same impact. Furthermore, they were a group of players who were together for four years, with few changes to the team each year," he added about the iconic Wembley Champions League in 1992.

The coexistence in that Dream Team locker room was one of the pillars of success: "Johan was very interested in the players' personal lives. He could invite you to dinner the day before at his house, but if the next day he had to scold you at practice, well, he would do it. He had that influence over the team. The players also formed friendships; sometimes four or five of them might go for a vermouth after practice, and others would end up joining them." The first European Cup was celebrated in a hotel on the outskirts of London, and for fear that something might happen to it – "It can't stay here, I don't know if we'll find it tomorrow," he said to himself – Naval took the trophy to his room, left it on a sofa, and then returned to the party. A similar ritual followed after the Paris Champions League.

However, after the 2009 Rome final, the trophy had a new guardian to look after it. "When we were returning from the celebration to the hotel, on the bus, Pep said to me: 'Listen, Carles, do you mind if I take the Cup with me?' I told him it was no problem, but not to forget to bring it down the next day!", the Barcelona delegate recalled. With the fourth and fifth Champions League titles, its safekeeping was then handled by the club's security team. It remains to be seen what will happen if, finally, Barça wins the sixth Champions League. Naval, for the moment, hopes to experience it with the team.

Times change and the delegate from Lleida has seen many generations of footballers pass by. "Things have changed. Before, a player could ask you which area of the city to go live in or would ask you to help them with this or that. Now, on the other hand, every new player who arrives is already very prepared. They know where they want to live and they are accompanied by many people, including agents, communications teams, chefs, nutritionists, etc. But I try to ensure they lack nothing and give them a hand if they need it, without interfering with their way of doing things", he explained to ARA. "Before, to summon a player you had to call their landline, and if they didn't answer, go look for them. Now I tell the captain to send a message to the players' chat".

The beginnings of Carles Naval at Barça

Naval, who is in charge of managing travel and handling federative matters – player registrations, communication with match referees –, has seen hundreds of players, seven Barça presidents, and nearly twenty coaches pass through. This year he marks 40 years as a delegate, but he has actually been working for Barça for over 50 years. He arrived at the club at 17 to help with bureaucratic issues in youth football, and after leaving for military service in Valencia and a year at a metallurgical company, he returned to debut with the first team in the year of the Hesperia mutiny.

He says that the toughest part of his job is the goodbyes, such as those of Pep Guardiola and Messi, among many others. And how does he manage to empathize with players and coaches? "I try to treat them all in the same way, whether it is a top player or one who has just come up from the youth academy. I don't make distinctions between one or the other," he recalled. Time passes, football changes, and Carles Naval keeps taking care of the Barça players.