“If he had wanted to succeed in the world of football, he would have succeeded in a big way.” The phrase is said by Pere Pla and he did reach Primera. Not like Isidre Sala, to whom he refers. She remembers him and does so with love, just one day after his death, at the age of 81. A historic player from Girona is leaving, the man with the most games in the entire history of the club. There are 432 spread over 13 seasons. Always in the Third Division, never in the elite. And what conditions he had for having climbed higher. The ceiling, of course, was reached in 1968 when he played in the Olympic Games in Mexico with the Spanish team. A curious story, that of Empordà. Who took football as a pastime, which combined with the family business. He will be buried today in Vilamalla, at half past eleven in the morning.
“He was a reference for the club and also for all those who had the pleasure and luck of playing with him.” Plan coincided with a couple of seasons in Girona. They had been dating for a few years but that didn’t stop them from forming a strong friendship. “He was an outlier, as a person and also as a footballer. A simple and humble gentleman”. Their paths crossed again when Sala trained Pla in Olot. “He knew how to put you in your place”, he recalls. Then, rescue an anecdote from when they shared a dressing room. “He had a privileged physique. He was thin but he didn’t need to work out too much to be in good shape. Besides, he didn’t like it very much and whenever he could, he got away from it. And that was the captain! Now, when the games came, he was the one who ran and jumped the most.” He finds only one objection: “The pity, in quotation marks, is that he never wanted to leave here because football was just a hobby and that was enough. He always wanted to stay at Girona. I had enough with that and the business with the cattle.’
The testimony is almost identical to that of Mariano Lloveras, who landed in Vista Alegre in the sixties. Following his older brother’s advice, he approached Sala. “He already knew him from a previous stage in Figueres and he told me that he was a very good person and that he would advise me”. He paid attention to it and does not regret it one bit. They agreed in the dressing room, on the pitch, and also outside of football. Even singing, among friends, after a good tiberi. He only finds good words, he doesn’t know how to say a single reproach. “He was a gentleman in the field and also as a person. He was admired by everyone and that is hard to find. Apart from that, he was a great defender, an excellent footballer and I never saw a bad word directed at any opponent”. Like Plan, he reiterates the idea that “he could have left Primera perfectly, because he had offers, but he understood football in a different way and he was happy doing what he was doing”. And he finishes: “Whoever talks about him, everyone will have good things to say about him.” This is how Isidre Sala was. Good people, as their people remember it. And also a piece of Girona history, with 432 official matches. Difficult, if not impossible, to repeat.
