Farewell to Jaume Olivé, the rector of La Masia | sports

The history of youth football at Barça and of course at La Masia can be explained based on the ideology of Laureano Ruíz, the wisdom of Oriol Tort and the methodology of Jaume Olivé (March 5, 1934-June 28, 2023). It must not be forgotten now that Olivé is no longer even there to notice that he had recently lost his memory, always very well cared for by Maribel. Impeccably dressed, he walked with a firm step and his shoulder strap visible, very dignified, his head held high and his white hair well-groomed, as if he had no doubts in life either, decisive as he had been in decision-making at the Camp Nou from 1968 until 1986.

Although he was a player and coach of many Catalan teams and the Barça amateur and subsidiary, Olivé transcended as coordinator of the youth academy, the first at Barça, under the mandate of Ferran Ariño and Jaume Amat. He put an end to the mismanagement of the staff and turned the open fields surrounding the stadium into playing fields until the walls of La Masia were raised in 1978. He had character and personality, he was strict and demanding and he fought both with the interventionist managers and with the reluctant technicians that they did not train but rather played with the children without being aware of the weight of the Barça shirt.

The squads of the lower Barcelona teams were drawn up for many years in an office presided over by Tort’s chair, Olivé’s typewriter and the comings and goings of Paco and Carlos Naval. The discussions could not last more than ten minutes and the decisions were recorded in the minutes, in writing and with the signature of the technician who made them and of course with the signature of the person in charge who assumed them, who was none other than Olivé himself. The best way to avoid misunderstandings, respect hierarchies and personalize the successes and mistakes of those who were part of that incipient Barcelona organizational chart.

Olivé led with Tort and Lluis Pujol a group of coaches, collaborators and observers who discovered players like Guardiola, Xavi, Iniesta or Amor. There were the endearing Carmona and Ursicino López, of course Martínez Vilaseca, later Quique Costas and before Lluis Aloy . An encyclopedic man, Olivé knew the entire history of Catalan football and theorized about the evolution of the game, an analyst and commentator as evidenced in his appearances in Ràdio Barcelona and in an article published in El País and entitled “San Lorenzo plays like Panizo” .

Jaume Olivé (second from the right) poses with a photo of the Barça homegrown players who achieved the treble in 2009. Image courtesy of Mundo Deportivo.

Very intuitive, Olivé was often required by President Núñez for major matters such as the signing of Terry Venables. The story of the signing of the English coach often enlivened the talks that Olivé, Tort, Pujol and Flotats held for a long time every first Tuesday of the month. Talking about football with friends and then listening to jazz alone were two of the passions of Jaume Olivé, who died at the age of 89, proud that the current Masia bears the name of his friend Oriol Tort. Olivé and Tort were soul mates when the children lived in the old Masia and dreamed of reaching the old and now disemboweled Camp Nou from the window.

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2023-06-28 20:05:16
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