With his left arm around the neck of a teammate, the other hand blowing a kiss to the camera, smiling from ear to ear, Cristhian Stuani is enjoying his second youth.
The Uruguayan striker, 37, has just scored the 5th goal in a demonstration by Girona, the team of which he is captain, against Sevilla FC on January 21 (5-1).
We are jubilant at the modest Montilivi stadium, 14,000 seats, barely more than the venues in France in Tours and Gueugnon (football), or Perpignan and Biarritz (rugby).
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Girona, this season, is a story of David against Goliath, of the unexpected bantamweight boxer rival of the heaviest of the heavyweights, Real Madrid.
There are so many little stories in the big one before the clash this Saturday (6:30 p.m.) at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium between the La Liga leader and his Catalan runner-up.
Girona, the city of Catalan independence
In
“
Girona
”
, a city of 100,000 souls, everyone speaks Catalan.
The identity is much more marked there than in Barcelona, 100 km to the southwest.
“It doesn’t feel bad.
Sometimes people don't make much of an effort to speak Spanish
,” recalls French defender Florian Lejeune, who played for the club (2014-16), now at Rayo Vallecano.
Girona is the city of independence, that of the former mayor Carles Puigdemont, one of the figures of separatism.
Cristhian Stuani is the top scorer in the history of Girona, where he has been playing since 2017. Sara Arib / Zuma / Panoramic
No rivalry with Barça, currently relegated 6 points behind the astonishing 2nd in Liga.
Girona is only the 11th city in Catalonia, the 64th city in Spain, an unpretentious corner.
“It’s a good little town,”
says Florian Lejeune.
There is a good climate, the Costa Brava, the Mediterranean Sea (25 km to the east).”
But a relative enthusiasm for football until recently.
“The problem is that there has always been Barcelona next door
,” underlines Lejeune, who only knew D2 with Girona.
Pere Guardiola, the facilitator
However, there is a common denominator between Barça and its neighbor: the Guardiola family.
Pere, little brother of Pep, former Barça glory as a player and coach today at Manchester City, has been the president of the board of directors since 2020. He had already become a minority owner of Girona (16%) in 2017, at the time where 47% of the club's shares were bought by... the City Group, which owns the Mancunian club where his brother coaches.
We will speak again.
Pere Guardiola,
“he has a very special talent, he is courageous and determined, the kind of person who takes the penalty at the last minute
,” praised sporting director Quique Carcel to
Relevo
last September.
A modest footballer, never turned pro, Pere Guardiola turned to marketing by joining Nike at the end of the 90s. He collaborated there with certain Barça stars (Gerard Piqué, Carles Puyol, Ronaldinho...).
Then he founded his own sports representation and consultancy agency in 2009, and enabled the transfer of Luis Suarez to Barcelona in 2014.
This is what he brings to Girona: his name, his network.
A facilitator seen almost in every match at the Montilivi stadium, although he lives in London, and always quick to defend his club.
“To say that we are Manchester City’s reserve is absurd
,” Pere Guardiola refuted for
Sport
in September.
It is one of the rare points of tension around Girona, like a pebble in the shoe.
A stepping stone for Manchester City?
The City Group, a holding company powered by the United Arab Emirates, owns a dozen clubs including Manchester, the jewel in its crown.
Like RB Salzburg, second behind RB Leipzig in the Red Bull galaxy, or Strasbourg bought last year by the owner of Chelsea, Girona has a powerful investor behind it.
New rich?
Nope.
Its payroll is only 13th in La Liga (€51.9 million), light years behind Real (€727 million).
We don't joke about financial fair play in Spain, Barça learned it the hard way.
Brazilian winger Savio is one of the attractions of the Spanish championship this season.
Joma Garcia / Action Plus / Panoramic
This does not mean that the City Group has no influence on Girona.
His presence allows him to welcome young gems, with the prospect of being
“
promoted
”
to Manchester City one day.
This is what awaits Brazilian winger Savio, 19 years old.
Recruited by Troyes, another City Group property, in 2022, he has never played a match in France.
He has been loaned to PSV Eindhoven and now to Girona.
His transfer to England appears imminent.
But to summarize Girona's success at the City Group would be unfair, and factually false.
With Pere Guardiola, two other men form the Catalan holy trinity: the sporting director, Quique Carcel, and the coach, Michel.
Carcel, trained as a player at Barça, did not have the career he hoped for.
He fell back as sports boss at L'Hospitalet, another Catalan club where he played (2002-2011) then managed (2011-14), before settling down in Girona, then in the second division.
Carcel and Michel, the winning duo from Girona
Getting there was already a success for the Blanquivermells (
“red and white”
in Catalan), who vegetated between D3 and D5 for forty years.
Under the leadership of Carcel (49 years old), Girona climbed into La Liga for the first time in 2017. Relegation in 2019 did not mar his work, before the comeback in 2022. Carcel is the architect , the one who ensures that the right tools are in the hands of the right person.
Which he also found with Miguel Angel Sanchez Muñoz, known as Michel.
It only took a press conference for the former midfielder, legend of a Madrid club (Rayo Vallecano), to be adopted.
He demanded that the questions be asked in Catalan, a language he was still far from mastering.
“There’s nothing extraordinary (about wanting to learn the language), it’s pure logic,”
said Michel.
To be happy, the more people I am with, the better.
And to be with people, I have to have a dialogue with them.
Otherwise, it’s crap.”
The secret of Girona is the human resources and the fact that the player knows that we are always there to help and improve him.
Michel, Girona coach for Marca in December 2023.
The 48-year-old coach has shaped a playful team, more symphony than rock'n'roll.
She likes to have the ball without falling asleep with it.
At 1 or 2-0, she takes risks to drive home the point, because she doesn't know how to do otherwise.
Above all, Michel sells a
“culture of effort and humility”
.
“The secret of Girona is human resources and the fact that the player knows that we are always there to help him and improve him
,” he explained to
Marca
in December.
And to highlight those who are
“the heart of Girona: Stuani, Bernardo (Espinosa, left the club this winter), Juanpe, Juan Carlos.... These are people who pull the cart and who know all the things very well. moments that Girona has gone through.”
Coach Michel works miracles in Girona.
Alberto Gardin / Zuma / Panoramic
On the field, Girona owes its salvation above all to its Ukrainian center forward Artem Dovbyk, a 1.90 m Malabar with 14 goals and 5 assists in La Liga;
to the dribbler Savio who we have already mentioned;
to his midfielder Aleix Garcia, first player in the club's history summoned to the Spanish selection;
or the experienced defender Daley Blind, 104 caps with the Netherlands.
The latter will be suspended for the clash against Real Madrid on Saturday, just like Michel.
This will not slow down the Catalan city's dream of invading powerful Madrid.
On Wednesday, a poster covered a building in the capital's famous Plaza Mayor.
We see several Girona players celebrating a goal, with this slogan:
“When the CV is not everything.”
Proof of this was after a resounding victory at FC Barcelona on December 10 (2-4).
“We are in the process of writing history
,” Michel was moved.
“Winning at the Bernabeu would mark a before and after in La Liga
,” predicted Stuani this week.
Since 1985, there have only been five different champions in Spain (Real, Barça, Atlético, Valencia, Deportivo La Coruna).
In modern football which gives pride of place to the giants and the richest, seeing a sixth triumph would be a shock wave.