The 36th edition of the tournament will see its semifinals today at the Municipal del Guinardó. The first, between Terrassa and Sants (6 p.m.). The second, between Sant Andreu and Manresa (8 p.m.). From the 1st to the 4th of September, the seventh edition of the tournament in the women’s category will take place, one of the novelties of recent years, when Històrics has managed to experience a second youth after some complicated years. In three years, in fact, the tournament could not be held for various reasons, and when the Guinardó Municipal was under construction, the tournament had not yet taken root. Now a decade ago, however, it has returned home, drawing the fans who in recent years have also returned to the neighborhood stadiums in Barcelona. Football has changed a lot from 1984 until now, but Dengra is still the president of Martinenc, seeing how people return little by little to the stands of the neighborhood fields and how more than 1,500 boys and girls play lower categories of a Martinenc who last won the tournament in 1991. “The fans are the ones who week after week enjoy, suffer and fight for their team, the one they feel closest to, the one for life, the one who deserves to be present at our tournament and face other teams of the same entity with whom they can experience vibrant matches”, defends Dengra about a tournament that is being modernized, with a large following on social networks, in the same spirit as always, uniting new generations of young fans with those grandparents who remember Martinenc, Sants or Jupiter filling stadiums at the gates of the Second Division.
Despite the fact that the tournament is organized by Martinenc, Històrics has become a great celebration of Catalan football, and has also been inviting clubs from the province of Barcelona for a few years. In fact, the club that has won it more times is Badalona, champion 7 times. A club with tradition, but which also exemplifies the problems of modest football, with a lot of refoundations and problems in the offices, the latest this summer with the merger with Llagostera-Costa Brava. “The football of a lifetime is still alive, with the boys and girls on the fields working. Many people return to the fields to feel part of a team” explains Juan Antonio Llamas, the last captain to raise the tournament, a year ago with Saint Andrew.
In fact, the organizers take advantage of the matches to pay tribute to men who have dedicated their entire careers to neighborhood football, to clubs rooted in a territory, such as Llamas and Juan Pablo Amantini, who has retired after 19 seasons and more of 500 official matches in Catalan football: players, coaches or managers like Miquel Carrillo, the honorary president of a tournament that remains firmly rooted, no matter what happens.
