“The best signings are those who, like Laia Palau, stay at the club when they finish”

I try not to think about it too much. For now, we continue to work with Laia. Now we are trying to finish the team and we also have the matter of the base, where we are both sporting directors.

So, will it be with Laia these first months?

Yes, when we brought up the relay at the end of the season, Laia asked to accompany her for a while to explain how everything is going and dispel any doubts that might arise. This is how I will do it, but in a much more relaxed way and without being so dependent on the day to day.

I’ve been saying for a while that I wanted to rest a little more…

Yes, although I don’t like to talk about tiredness. Although he has been 17 years, he was at ease and could have continued, but the club required a professional sporting director and I do not want and cannot be that. I didn’t get everywhere, work allows me to be in the club for many hours, but not with a total disposition.

What does he mean when he talks about professionalizing the position?

Dedicate yourself exclusively to it. I, for example, could not go on trips or solve all the day-to-day problems. Uni has grown a lot and must continue to grow. The way to do it is not with me, but with Laia Palau.

Had he been considering her as a successor for some time?

I was thinking about it, we had talked a lot about the following year and I saw her as the ideal candidate. I don’t want to deceive anyone, we would have liked him to continue playing for another year, but once his decision was made, he was offered that possibility.

What does it mean that Laia Palau, a club legend, is his successor?

In terms of the gallery, it’s great that someone with his track record is taking over. It will give visibility to the club and women’s basketball. But that’s not the important thing, because if he didn’t have the ability to be one, it wouldn’t do him any good to be a legend and have the resume he has. She is fully qualified and a person who deserves my utmost confidence. The legend theme is an added bonus.

What will it bring differently?

Above all, a new way of doing things, an even closer character with the players. He has been in the dressing room and will be able to anticipate any problems that may arise.

Can’t he lack experience?

Your knowledge of the market must be increased. Now it’s her turn to see everything, not as a player, but with a sporting lens. Surely, with time, it won’t take long to settle into the new role.

With 17 years at Uni in Spain, you are sure to help him!

Federative issues, agent market… You need someone to accompany you, of course! It’s not so much helping as accompanying, so that she can see how she’s doing and value it. Then he will do it his way.

He talked about a spinet nailed with the base…

In 2015 I made a wrong decision which was to do a basic project with another club in Girona. Over time, the results are very clear. When we joined this club we were the third quarry in Spain and now we are not among the top twenty-five. Nor are there so many players who leave the quarry to go to teams, no longer ours, but from Women’s League 2, the Challenge or the Women’s. Time has shown that it was not a wise decision. I took it, I was wrong and I admit it. Now I have the challenge of putting the foundation back where it belongs.

In what stands out the project with the Basketball Girona?

The ambition Above all the ambition, also the means. The structure that Básquet Girona will contribute, very strong and very hard-working, with the experience they have gained in recent years, with spectacular logistics. Xus Escosa or Marc Pena are people who have been at the base for a long time and we will contribute our knowledge in the women’s field.

Do you want to create a base that will be the future of the first team?

We do not have this goal as primary. It’s complicated, because we’re still a Euroleague team. What we want is to raise the level of female players in Girona’s counties again and, from here, there will surely be more good results and more elite players, whether or not they are at Uni.

In addition to all this, there was talk of a managerial function within the board, will that be the case?

For now there is nothing definite. For now I’ll be with the base and helping Laia, and I don’t want the involvement I’ve had so far. Since everything will be much more relaxed, we will outline with the board what other tasks I can do. In the end, whenever I have been at Uni I have done everything, and I continue with the same disposition.

In the end, he has been at Uni since it was founded, how has he experienced it?

The best thing is that the club has become professional without losing the popular essence of a club loved by the people and involved in society and the territory. We continue to define ourselves in many other things outside of basketball, and that makes me happy. It can be seen with the number of subscribers, the sponsors there (small, large, medium…) who do not leave Uni alone.

Is that the most important thing?

For sure. Titles are important and everyone remembers them, but the club has suffered a lot in these 17 years. There’s no need to go too far with Glòria, the pandemic… We survived and got stronger and it was key to be rooted in the territory and with the people. If you ask a lot of people what years we won the leaguethey might not know.

But if you make him stay with a sports moment?

There are so many! But, without a doubt, the league title, the Sant Jordi of 2015. It is one of the greatest feats of Girona sport. We had a very low budget and we managed to win the league thanks to the good work of Ramon Jordana and Roberto Íñiguez. It was a team with more than half of Catalan players or fresh out of the quarry and with very good foreign players, but without much international recognition. That was a feat. I also remember the titles, the great European victories or the successes of the base. The club has been runner-up in Spain three times.

Maybe now, with the new base…

We are starting from a situation that is not the best and everything will take time, but we are very hopeful. The people who work with the quarry, and with this I want to remember all the clubs in the Girona regions, we know that there is a lot of pressure and demand. Wanting immediate results will get us nowhere.

How do you rate 17 years as sports director?

I’m still very much into it, but I’m very proud of it. I think that I have been the best sports director that Uni has had. Also the worst, because there haven’t been any more! The truth is that I already live it with some nostalgia. When we finish defining the team, which is costing with the American, I will relax a little more.

It will have many stories…

When you don’t have the budget of others you have to panic and turn to other things. Sometimes we have met (and I speak in the plural, because there are many people who collaborate) from players who get involved to the point of taking others, managers, acquaintances, trips to convince someone to come…

And with the pandemic?

Players have come that we never dreamed would do, looking for security in Girona. Chelsea Gray, Sonja Vasic, Frida Eldebrink…

That’s a lot of names, but which ones would stand out above the rest?

I think the best signings are those of Noemí Jordana, Laura Antoja and Laia Palau, because once they have finished their careers they continue at the club. There are many more that have been a real crowd pleaser and helped us win. Incredible players have passed through Girona, but the good signings are those of the people who remain at the club.

People who will help finish consolidating the project?

I think we are. We are where we wanted to be, competing for titles. Once it will be won, the majority will not, but we feel consolidated, especially socially and financially, with the cleaned club. Sportingly, it depends a lot on the budgets, and also how you play that year, the chemistry of the team. This can be another great season.

Do you see the team ready, then?

This time we may have made a team without the scoring rush of other years. We often said “if we don’t win titles, at least we put on a show”. We want to be more ambitious, to fight for trophies again. It will be a stronger team for sure. Maybe without the American streak of scoring a lot of points, but a team to try to win.

The first challenge will be with Villeneuve, to be in the Euroleague…

We are looking forward to it. The Euroleague is a difficult goal, but we will give everything so that our subscribers can see top-level basketball. If the play-off is not passed and we have to play the Eurocup, however, the club will not lose its rings and, of course, we will try to win it. Let’s not forget, either, the state and national ones. We want the league and the Catalan League.