When Girona filled Madrid with banners: "Before we used Athletic's"

GironaGirona visits Real Madrid this Friday (9 PM, Movistar LaLiga) for the seventh time in its history. The most impactful of all, without a doubt, was two seasons ago, when Míchel's team arrived at the Santiago Bernabéu with morale sky-high: the whites had 58 points and Girona had 56. “If we won, we would be leaders. It was amazing”, explains Pepe Sierra, the president of the Federation of White-and-Red Supporters' Clubs. No one wanted to miss that match, which would end in a 4-0 local thrashing that didn't hurt at all. “The expectation was very high, many people traveled. In fact, we had so many commitments that I gave up my ticket so no one would be left out. What did I do? Well, I went to watch it in a bar. We had a good time anyway”, he specifies.

Taking advantage of the showcase that the event represented, two of the club's main sponsors filled Madrid with banners and posters that vindicated the good work of Girona, whose performance was going around the world, especially after beating Barça at Montjuïc (2-4). Near Plaza Mayor, Marlex placed a large banner that recalled the one designed by Joan Laporta and the slogan "Ganes de tornar-vos a veure" (Eager to see you again), which read "When your curriculum isn't everything". “Girona showed that experience and a record full of successes are not decisive factors on the pitch. We wanted to show that not all potential fits in a curriculum and that there are other factors that can decide victory, such as teamwork, attitude, or initiative”, they describe at Marlex.

On the other hand, Puma also contributed, with different messages around the Bernabéu in a campaign called Forever. Dreaming. [Forever. Dreaming]: "Some stadiums have roofs. Some teams don't", "Victories are written in history books. The way to win them, in people's hearts", "What if a team were measured not by the size of its trophy cabinets, but by the size of its dreams?" or "It all started with a question: why not?"

“It was unthinkable to experience something like this”, says Sierra, a regular at Montilivi since the 80s. “One weekend we went to the local cinema and the next, to football, to see Aroca, Javi Morata and company”. The legendary fan recalls that nobody made banners or anything like that in those years, so, together with some friends, they decided to be pioneers. “To announce important matches, like the promotion finals to Second B, Albert Mateos, Xevi Batllori and I made them by hand”.

“We bought the flags on Macià street, which weren't even Girona's. They were Athletic's, without a crest. But since the color was the same, white and red, it passed”, he says, adding: “We bought it by the meter and, afterwards, with different shades of duct tape, we put the notice we wanted to launch on it”. Immediately after, he lets slip a “My goodness, the crazy things we did for Girona!”

The crazy things

For nonsense, he understands "following the club wherever it went". "I have very much in mind the years in the Primera Catalana in the late nineties. Barceloneta, Tremp, Ripollet, Roda de Berà. Those were our rivals," he enumerates. "We have spent our money, yes. Once, in Castelldefels, we chartered a bus and only twelve people came," he confesses.

Sierra has never gone alone to a Girona away game. But the data is tricky. "I don't have a driving license, so someone had to drive me. If there were two of us, that has happened many times," he says. "In Balaguer, we arrived five minutes late and the scoreboard showed 1-0. But it was the other way around, which, obviously, I couldn't know. So I was very upset for a long time thinking we were losing, and it turns out we were winning. I have plenty of those," he explains.

"Now it's normalized that Girona plays at the Bernabéu, but it's still a dream," he affirms, and regrets that the trip won't have the abundance of others because the set date doesn't favor a massive visiting presence: "I had 50 hotel rooms booked, but playing on Friday it's all gone. There will be our fans, but not as many as there would have been if it had been played on the weekend." With the victory against Villarreal that brought permanence very close and Madrid distracted with the Champions tie against Bayern Munich and seven points behind Barça, Sierra doesn't rule out a magical night. "Surely, we arrive calmer than them," he concludes.