"We have discovered that existing is more important than winning"

BarcelonaWith more than 450,000 inhabitants, Lleida will not have any football team playing in the top four categories of football next season. Smaller towns enjoy professional football and Lleida does not. Atlètic Lleida, the recently created club that does not quite appeal to fans, will hardly avoid relegation to Tercera RFEF. With four matchdays remaining, they are eight points from the relegation zone. And Lleida CF, the team that defends the long tradition of football of the former Unió Esportiva Lleida, is precisely last in Tercera RFEF. They will likely be relegated too. In a city where basketball thrives, football struggles. But in the stands of the Tercera RFEF grounds, in the darkest moment, many fans have discovered many things. They have found beauty there, despite the pain.

This Friday, the Camp d'Esports box will be packed with nearly 200 people who have already confirmed their attendance at the presentation of the book 'Banderes blaves' (Pagès Editors) by journalist Juanjo Lecumberri. The event will be hosted by journalist Oriol Jové, author of the prologue, and will consist of a conversation between the author and historian Ramon Usall, in charge of the epilogue; Òscar Sarramia, cover illustrator, and Marc Torres, club representative. All profits from the book, by the way, the author will donate to the club, as Lleida CF is going through a complicated economic period. "Many people have understood that the important thing in football is to exist, more than to win. We must exist and have an identity. And then see how we can build. If we go down even further, but guarantee the future of the entity, we will not be sad. It will be a new beginning if we manage to clean up the economy," explains the journalist.

In recent decades, debts have suffocated Lleida, causing economic failures, a rebranding, name changes, and owner merry-go-rounds. The team that reached the First Division thirty years ago now lives far from professional football after years of crisis that still endanger the club's survival. In the summer of 2025, it seemed the team would disappear just as some businessmen boosted the project of Atlètic Lleida, with the help of the City Council, but without social support. With empty stands, Atlètic Lleida will be relegated. And Lleida CF, with more people, will also be relegated. The idea of merging the two entities, however, appeals to few people. "Not even a discussion," says Lecumberri.

"The key is for a new owner to arrive and for the debts to be paid. People are nervous because this new buyer isn't coming," explains Lecumberri. The idea for the book, in fact, was born when the team was heading for hell in 2025. "This season Lleida is forced to play in Tercera RFEF. A team that not long ago was fighting to be in Segunda, debuted on the first matchday at the Can Vidalet stadium. It's a team from Esplugues that does things very well, but for the people of Lleida, going from playing in big stadiums to playing here was tough. But the stands filled with people with blue flags and scarves. And I thought something had to be done," he says. When a team is going through a worse time, that's when you see if the fans are loyal. And Lleida has fans who never give up and have continued to support the team despite the poor results, as the club operates with members acting as volunteers and good players could not be signed. Lleida is fighting to survive.

Lecumberri explains how difficult it has been to follow Lleida these years with 22 chapters, uniting the club's history with his life, in order to "have a bigger picture of what Lleida means to people". During this year he has interviewed workers, supporters and people from the world of football to trace a path that unites memories with the present. To explain how people's lives change, with changes, joys and disappointments, both within and outside of football. Because people who love a club, always keep it in mind even if other things happen around them. "When 15M happened, for example, I am clear that it was the last match of Unió Esportiva Lleida with that name, at Hospitalet's stadium", explains the journalist, now living in Barcelona for work.

Following Lleida in Australia

In fact, like many people from Lleida, Lecumberri has made his way far from his city. "For many years I haven't lived in Lleida, but the club has always been a link to my roots," says a man who, with that surname, was destined to be a fan of Lleida. "It's not a very common surname in Lleida, so everyone immediately knows who my father was," he says, referring to Juan José Lecumberri, a Navarrese player trained at Osasuna who signed for Lleida in the early 80s. And he stayed so long that "he is the third player with the most matches in the club's history, surpassed only by Rubio and Palau." "People remember his era with fondness, with Jordi Gonzalvo on the bench, the current anthem... My father met my mother, who is from Lleida, and he stayed. Now he works as a professor and always goes to the stadium. We've always gone to the stadium, to the north goal," says the son.

"I claim this shared ritual of going to the stadium, to keep it alive. I studied in 2017 in Madrid and there it was easier for me to go see Osasuna, the team we also follow by family tradition, like Lleida. I returned home and worked at SER just the year with Idiakez on the bench, when we were one step away from promotion to the Second Division, losing on penalties against Sevilla's reserve team. But then I went to live in Australia, where I worked as a football coach. And following the club was a way to feel at home," says a journalist whose first family memory is of him playing a vinyl record of the club's anthem over and over at his grandparents' house. "I try to give voice to a generation, to a way of doing things in which perhaps fans of other Catalan clubs can feel reflected," assures the author, who believes that fans of other "suffering" Catalan clubs can also enjoy the book, as it ultimately speaks of universal ideas such as the feeling of belonging to a community.