"The giant of the pine, now it scores, now it scores": the new song of Girona

GironaJovent Gironí, the supporters' group located in the south stand of the Montilivi stadium, has a songbook to cheer on match days. Whoever wants to see it, it is posted on their YouTube account. There, one can hear all the songs and read the lyrics so that people can learn them and sing them at Montilivi. There are legendary ones, such as Quan jo era petit, which speaks about the childhood dreams of any Girona fan, who spent their days imagining victories against Barça and Madrid. Victories that have ended up happening in real life. Illustrious names such as Míchel, Stuani, and Portu appear in these songs.

But the songbook is outdated on the internet. The last of the melodies refers to Oleksandr Pyshchur. "People sing it wrong at the stadium," warn those from Jovent Gironí, who came up with the idea of linking the Ukrainian's figure to that of the 'Gegant del Pi' (Giant of the Pine), a protagonist of stories and legends in Catalonia. Also of a very well-known popular children's song in our country. Who hasn't sung at some point that line "El gegant del pi, ara balla, ara balla; el gegant del pi, ara balla pel camí"?

This is, precisely, the lyric that the Montilivi grandstand sings by mistake. Because the Jovent, of course, wrote their own lyrics for the Ukrainian, which says "El gegant del pi, ara marca, ara marca; el gegant del pi, ara marcarà un hat-trick". "It's just that he's as tall as a giant," say those from the group, so they didn't need much imagination. They hope that from now on people will sing it correctly. In case there was any doubt about whether he dances or scores, Pyshchur celebrated his first goal with Girona in the Copa del Rey match in Cuarte de Huerva and will look to score another this Saturday on the trip to San Sebastián to face Real Sociedad B (14:00, LaLigaTV Hypermotion).

The figure of the lanky forward, already officially known as the Giant of the Pine, a nickname that the club fuels on social media, generated some controversy in the summer. “When we saw him train and play, in the first few days, we weren’t sure about him,” even internal sources at the club claim. Pyshchur seemed lost in Girona. But through effort, a lot of will, and many hours, he has been integrating into the locker room and has had minutes in the League after spending the first matchdays on the sidelines.

The investment of almost one million euros for a striker who had only scored a couple of goals in the Hungarian League, combined with his height, 2.04 meters, not only did not help him to be taken seriously, but at the beginning it was a reason for some mockery every time he touched the ball. Everything has been changing gradually with the competition in play: already in one of his first actions, in his debut in the Second Division against Las Palmas, he sent a shot against the crossbar.

Montilivi began to see him with new eyes by winning aerial duels, emerging victorious from disputes by throwing himself on the ground, and by not negotiating a single drop of sweat on the pitch. The last day he was already cheered at the stadium and the supporters' group has been behind him for days with a song that has quickly established itself among the fanbase, even if it is with different versions of the lyrics.

The second tallest in the Second Division and the fifth in Fontajau

Pyshchur is, by far, the tallest player in the recent history of Girona. In the current squad, he is followed by goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga, who is 1.95 meters tall; at the opposite extreme is Portu, with his 1.67 meters. In the entire Second Division, he is only surpassed by Finnish goalkeeper Lukas Bergström, who is one centimeter taller (2.05 meters). In the First Division, Thibaut Courtois comes close, standing exactly 2 meters tall.

The tallest heights that Girona had known until now were the Kosovar goalkeeper Arijanet Muric, who is 1.98 meters tall; a center-back from La Mancha of the same height named Juan Ángel Madrigal who played in the Third Division in the year 2000, and Pedro Alcalá, the scorer of the goal in Girona's first victory in the First Division, at 1.96 meters.

If, instead of taking the measurements of the Montilivi players, one takes as a reference the FIATC Girona squad that plays at Fontajau, Pyshchur would be the fifth tallest in Moncho Fernández's group, only surpassed by Martinas Geben (2.08 meters), Aljaz Kunc (2.07 meters), David N’Guessan and Nikola Maric (2.06 meters).