Galder Reguera (Bilbao, 1975) finds a Brazilian Flamengo player who narrated while performing his dribbles. Another story goes that Pacho Maturana traveled with a Colombian team to his country’s coffee-growing regions, helping them understand that his mission was to provide happiness to coffee farmers. In Regera, one can learn more about life through soccer, which is both underrated and underrated.
A philosopher by training, he is the Strategy and Operations Director of the Athletic Club Foundation of the Regera Publica. why soccer (Geoplaneta), an anthology of his columns that serves to embrace fans demanding about what’s happening off the field as well. And as a revelation to those who feel alien to the ball. Readers learn concepts such as proximity soccer, psychological damage, that stadiums are not bracketed from the world, or that this game is played seriously because it is something kids play seriously.
we don’t cry by It’s a song, but and write songs. And that also happens when we are excited about football. Can you imagine your life without him?
No, it made me feel a lot and helped me know myself and the world. For better or worse, things like timidity on the field when I played when I was younger. We soccer fans are accused of having artificial emotions. That you can’t get upset just because your team loses a game at the last minute. There is a theory that some of that feeling comes from outside of football. This is a channeler of emotions outside the stadium.
His two children appear in his literature. What role do they play in keeping you passionate about soccer?
One of the things that happens when you have children is that you begin to see the world through their eyes again. All the things that you put aside as an adult, like charm and reason. Family and relationships between people are very important in my literary life. I was a posthumous son and had a stepfather. That is why we always understand that the bond is not only of blood, but of what you live, what you share, and the moments that must be forged. There’s nothing better than going to the stadium with the kids. I love sharing soccer time with them. My children have made me a better writer. It is often said that having children leaves you with less time to write and makes you less of a writer, but I think the opposite is true for me.
San Mamés is not a stone, it’s a people
The stadium of his club Athletic is also the main character of his work. Is the new San Mamés already creating its own legend for a new generation?
San Mamés is not a stone, it is a people. We moved a hundred meters from the old to the new. That’s why I wrote that even if the stone changes, the soul remains. San Mamés is our home and we can change apartments, but we say to our friends, “I’m going home.” Home is a place where you live spiritually. By not moving the fan, the relationship between the fan and the space will not change. It was an emotional day when our previous house was demolished, but once we started living in our new house, we realized that it was still the same, even though the comfort and safety had improved.
My children have no memory of the old San Mamés. The eldest went to some games, but did not remember, and the little one could not step on it. When we watch old footage together, the kids say, “Wow, what a small ground, isn’t Athletic playing there?” I’m a little on hinges. The old San Mamés is my Aitite field, and the new field is my children’s field.
The Qatar World Cup made me doubt myself, but I think soccer can be used for education. Before the game, I told the kids how FIFA and Qatar prevent people from talking about LGTBI rights.
Let’s admit that today’s football has its own epic. The World Cup final in Qatar was a great match.
If there are people who say the best World Cup was the 1982 World Cup when he was 15 years old, it’s because he lived his life with the most passion. I was 15 years old in 1990 and that World Cup was crap in terms of the level of play, but I remember Argentina vs. Cameroon, Colombia vs. Germany in Rincon, the Twins in Egypt, or Italy vs. Argentina in the semi-final in Naples. Discover the world with your eyes and everything will enchant you.
I wasn’t sure whether I should watch the Qatar World Cup, but I think soccer can be used for education. Before the match, I told the children how FIFA and Qatar prevent people from talking about LGBTI rights. They must remember that World Cup fondly. I don’t remember much of the game just by watching it, but to the kids, Livaković is to us what Taffarel is to us.
Can fans stop loving soccer?
You can walk away. I also distanced myself from time to time. I looked at him with contempt and suspicion. From my own experience, I still have doubts about its educational role. Soccer also serves to misinstruct a technocratic discourse that is largely impersonal in its treatment, with its ultra-capitalist sense of maximum demand and its early differentiation of levels.
But there’s something about the ball. When you start throwing it away, you become hypnotized by calculating the chances of it ending up in the trash. A video of a teacher shooting a basket with his back turned and treating students to chocolate if it goes in has gone viral online. The moment the ball approaches the board, there is a silence filled with absolute anticipation. Will miracles happen? If you like the ball, it is very difficult to get rid of it. You can cut yourself off from elite football, but it’s hard to spend the day reading a book in the park, and you don’t have to watch the kids play to see if the ball goes in.
Perhaps one of his future plans, as I read in another column, is to write an “anti-coaching manual.” Yes, you can’t. There seems to be no middle ground in soccer rhetoric between cup slogans and surrealism that assumes there is more to suffer than to celebrate.
I hate coaches who say, “Everything is possible,” or “It’s a matter of will,” or that if Betis can beat Real Madrid, that means we can all achieve our goals, because I think they are philosophical parasites. My big problem is that people who need help often put themselves in the hands of a coach, which puts professional psychological help on the back burner. It’s better to know what you can’t do than be fixated on the fact that what you can’t accomplish is your sole responsibility.
His heroes include Rachid Meklofi, José Ángel Ilibar, Socrates, Kenny Dalglish, Predrag Pašić, Eric Cantona, and Thomas Hitzlsperger. What do they have in common?
It wasn’t just limited to the stadium. I love what players do on the field, and I don’t really care what they do off the field unless they cross certain lines that shouldn’t be crossed. I don’t need political positions in a football player, but having a political position makes him a bit more of a hero to me. The moment I was most proud of current captain Iñaki Williams was when he mentioned the far-right in a press conference and said he hoped his goal would help silence them.
Mekhroufi gave up his sporting glory at the 1958 World Cup and joined the Algerian National Liberation Front to help his country. His replacement, Juste Fontaine, was, and still is, the World Cup’s top scorer, but when I once asked Meklofi if he felt sorry for that, he replied: “When I pass through Algiers, the children kiss my hand.” He wasn’t going to change what he did for what he did.
Heroes are sometimes nearby. He speaks fondly of Carlos Grupegui, Oscar de Marcos, Dani Vivian and Inigo Perez.
You name some exceptional people. I was fortunate enough to be able to share aspects of my work with them, which increased their respect for me. With Iñigo Perez I spent one of the happiest moments of my life. I was at a film festival (Thinking Football, sponsored by Athletic) and he wanted to come too. I thanked him and he said he had seen me around the club a few times and was embarrassed to come up and say hi, but he wanted to thank me. He said, “You taught me when I was 15 years old. It had a huge impact on me, it changed my perspective on how I looked at things.” Those were just practice classes that I did for three weeks at the school where I studied. He is an extraordinary person and he is proving it with Vallecas. The type of people who make football better.
Ticket prices are exorbitant. The reason young people can’t go to soccer is not because the 90 minutes are long, but because soccer is precious.
What irritates you about modern soccer, or should we call it post-modern or post-football?
It’s a fan movement. Ticket prices are exorbitant. The reason young people can’t go to soccer is because soccer is precious, not because 90 minutes is too long. The stadium experience is great and time flies, even during a bad game. I am troubled by those in power trying to remove the rightful owners of this game, the people, from the stadium. Many clubs are guilty of turning their backs on their real fans. There is now a movement to restore intimacy, which can be seen in Burgos, Santander, Hércules, or Barcelona with Sant Andreu and Europa, where fans return to their proper places. Go to a local club that offers something that the mega clubs can’t. That’s the kind of football we should insist on.
I also don’t like having my camera everywhere. And I can’t stand the “shirt please” sign. When I was a kid, I went to San Mamés to paint for the players, but they didn’t want the shirts, they didn’t ask for them. I don’t like idol worship. In general, there should be more of a one-on-one relationship with soccer players. I think that is maintained in Bilbao as well. Ignacio Martínez de Pison calls it “the city of former players”. Because every time he comes, he passes someone on the street.
Does loving soccer demand that?
yes. Like someone you love. You love football and you want it to behave.
The Athletic Recently Awarded Refugees Hany Tarijeh from Palestine and the team’s former captain took part in the event to great applause in San Mamés.
Athletics is deeply rooted in the community and never turns its back on society. There is a blurred line between human rights and politics. People say clubs don’t need to play politics, which is understandable given the partisanship, but it’s all about politics. DDs. Hi. These are political agreements recognized by the United Nations.
There was a very strong social imperative to take a step forward and the club accepted it. Additionally, we have a special bond with Honey, as we appointed her as our 125th anniversary ambassador and she is also a patron of a project we launched in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria. It was a very exciting day. Those were the days when I was proud of my club. 50,000 applause for someone in a stadium means they are not alone.
This book is dedicated to my colleagues at La Cervantina, a selection of Spanish authors. She is trained by a coach she defines as “the best coach in the world.”
The group creates very strong bonds. it was very helpful. When I was mentally exhausted and depressed, Pedro (coach Zuazua) called me and said: “Gulder, I know where you are right now, in the hole.” And I’m going to go there and kick you out, because I’ve been there and I know how it works. Come with me, dude. When I hung up the phone, I cried to death. I realized what a team is: people who don’t leave.
If you were a player and had played soccer for several years outside of athletics, where would you have chosen to transfer to?
I wish it had been a certain clubman. If not, I don’t know. I think I was looking for a place I was passionate about. I love English football. From there, it doesn’t necessarily have to be premier. Or a club with strong roots in its environment. What saddens me is that millionaires choose money, something they don’t need. They don’t realize that the one thing you can’t get back is time.
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