BarcelonaCornellà, Gavà, Hospitalet, Sabadell, Europa and Sant Andreu. Marc Viver’s footballing journey went through the main clubs in Barcelona, with invitations to play big games and sharing the dressing room with players who have reached the top, such as Ferran Jutglà. From the hand of the best coaches in Catalan football, Marc grew up. But the pressure to which children are subjected from a very young age in this world means that not everyone is able to devote themselves fully to it. “Now I wouldn’t have a representative, it was a mistake”, he explains about the years in which he suffered.
Viver has great memories of most of his coaches. David Prats, Toni Lobo, Sergio García, current analysts of Xavi Hernández’s coaching staff at Barça, were his coaches precisely during his youth stage at Sant Andreu, of which his great professionalism stands out. But something broke and he found refuge in a very different sport, the Muay Thai, also known as Thai boxing. A sporting turn of 180 degrees that has led him to debut in fight evenings.
“At the age of six I already wanted to play football and my father took me to Cornellà. This will be remembered for the rest of your life… There was a waiting list, despite the fact that they had a multitude of pre-Benjamin teams. My father insisted and said that if necessary he would pay the fee just so that I could train, even if I could not play. That’s how it was. The first day I trained with pre-Benjamí A and at the end the coordinator said to my father “Buy him the clothes, he plays on Saturday”. It has always worked this way since childhood. If I hadn’t done well they would have told me not to train. In an hour everything changed. With six years A madness I ended up spending eight years of my life there,” he explains.
Then he began the journey through different clubs, and got to be trained by former player Walter Pandiani in the lower categories of Europe. “Here I was convinced that he would be professional and would reach Primera”, he says. Everything went wrong at Sant Andreu, despite initially enjoying it. “I played several good games against Zaragoza and Espanyol and offers were presented to me. I chose a representative to choose from. fatal error Either you have a good representative or you better not have one. In the end I stayed at Sant Andreu, where I made my debut with the first team and they promised me that I would play more. Nonsense you believe. In the end, you get discouraged. We were a team with a very high level for the category, we were the first to stand out. But the club started to do badly. From the middle of the season, the money went away, we didn’t see them anymore… And we ended up going down”.
Suddenly, everything became complicated, like deciding whether to focus 100 percent on football or study. “Studies with the National Division were already difficult to combine, but I got through high school. Then, when I was at Sant Andreu, I had to leave the higher cycle halfway through. Here I began to realize that this was not what I wanted for me. A clear and very close example is my colleague Ferran Jutglà. Look where he is. He took care of himself and lived for football. No studies. And it has turned out well for him because he is very good. I have never played or seen anyone so hungry for a goal. While the rest of us were laughing and fooling around or thinking what we were going to do in the hotel, he was focused on playing. His way. In the end you lose, but you don’t either it’s your fault. It’s the immaturity of age. Not knowing where you are. My father had to remind me constantly: “Son, you’re taking the plane to play against Mallorca, do you know where you are? » No, I didn’t know. I didn’t realize it.”
In a few months he went from dreaming of signing for a big club to leaving it. “I ended up leaving the team to go play for Can Buxeres, in Segona Catalana. Here, next to the house, but nothing serious. The following season, 2020/21, I started at Sarrià, but in pre-season training I sprained my ankle very badly, on the verge of surgery. I was unemployed for six months. That’s when I joined a gym and started taking boxing lessons. At the same time, he was staying with a friend, Sergio, to go jogging. He practices the Muay Thai. He showed me things about his sport and I liked it, so I decided to give it a try. I can say that it is the best decision I have made”, he defends. “People think that being a footballer is a path of roses. What’s up, nothing to do with that”, he adds.
Helping young people
In a few months, Viver has gone from the football field to making his debut in an evening as a fighter in this sport, where he has discovered a whole new world and in which he takes better care of his body. The challenge is to compete continuously in these very popular martial arts in Thailand. Now, he has learned some lessons from the disappointments of cruel football with young people: “I want to dedicate myself to working with children with social problems and use my experience to help them. I work as a dining room monitor, and I will study the upper cycle of social integration. I want them to learn that they should be happy in life and do what they like. Your life is yours and you have to do what you like. You don’t have to convince anyone of anything, you have to convince yourself. When you do something you don’t like, you’re wasting your time first and then the people who have invested in you, because you’re not giving it your all. But if I’ve learned anything, it’s that football is a cruel business from start to finish. Even if it hurts”.
