The young Barcelona player who ended up 600 kilometers from Newcastle: "I was devastated"

Torelló"It's an incredible story. It might be a bit painful now, but I hope that in a few years it will be a funny memory, and that when I'm older I can tell it to my grandchildren," says Adam Spencer (Exeter, Great Britain; 1985). He's talking about the movie-like story of the Barça fan who last Tuesday confused Newcastle's stadium, St. James' Park (with an apostrophe), in the north of England, near Scotland, with Exeter City's stadium, St. James Park (without an apostrophe), in the southeast: 600 kilometers away, a six-and-a-half-hour drive. "He couldn't have chosen a more distant stadium, not even if he'd tried," laments Spencer, who is responsible for the Exeter fan experience. The team is sixteenth in League One, the third tier of English football.

On the same night that Barça played the first leg of their Champions League round of 16 tie at Newcastle, Exeter hosted Lincoln City. Suddenly, one of the volunteers who give directions around the stadium came into the offices to explain that a Barcelona fan was trying to get into the stadium with a ticket for the Newcastle-Barcelona match. The staff on duty pretended he'd gone to the wrong stadium. "My first thought was that it must be a joke. Then I thought it was someone who wanted to record it for TikTok," Spencer recalls. He found a young man in his twenties or thirties "completely devastated." To top it off, it was raining and freezing cold. He asked him where he was from, but he didn't speak any English. He only said "London" and "train." It was pure chance that the stadium wasn't empty because there was a match on. "I don't know what he was thinking when he saw such a small stadium without any Barcelona or Newcastle shirts," he adds. Exeter wears red and white.

"I told him he'd come to the wrong stadium, but that he could still watch some football. I told him he'd probably rather see Reece Cole, a player from Exeter, than Lamine Yamal, and that he'd have a better night because he'd be closer to the pitch and we don't have VAR. I was trying to joke around to lighten the mood, but he was completely bewildered and very embarrassed. He just wanted to get out of the situation," Spencer explains. "Looking back, it's a really funny story, but at the time I felt really sorry for him. Maybe it was the first time he'd ever been to a Barça Champions League match. Maybe he'd been saving up for months and months. You never know what someone's situation is," he points out.

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He gave him a ticket and took him to the stands. "I wanted to know his name, his story, how he got here because it's an incredible story, but between the fact that he didn't speak English and that he was embarrassed, I didn't want to pressure him and make the situation worse," he admits. He thought he would go see him at halftime to bring him a cup of tea and get some more information. But he was gone. Either he had changed seats or, most likely, he had left at halftime. They have tried to find him, without success so far. "It's impossible to find him unless he comes out himself. I suppose he's seen the story because it's been everywhere, even in the New York TimesYes, but he hasn't come out because of embarrassment. Hopefully, he'll get over it and come out eventually. It would be great to find him. It would be fantastic to have him back home." An optician has contacted the club to try to locate him and turn him into an advertising figure. Nobody knows when he was supposed to leave, how he was supposed to return, nothing.

Exeter, a club that has never gone beyond the third tier. Fans. At St. James' Park in Newcastle, there were more than 50,000 people. 2016, and Manchester City, a 10-1 in January at the Etihad Stadium, with his son acting as the club's mascot, but he never expected to host Barça.

"We have similarities: not football, maybe, but as clubs," Spencer says while laughing. Every time he sees Barça, he'll remember that anonymous Barça fan who ended up at the wrong St. James' Park that Tuesday in March: "In the world of football, there's an unwritten law that says you have to look after your fellow fan. There are rivalries, but in the end, everyone loves the game. It's the best game in the world because it unites people. Wonderful stories like this demonstrate the magic of football."