Although it may seem like a lie, not so long ago, at the end of the nineties and the beginning of the two thousand, the Girona it wasn’t the neat and serious club model that is capable of winning the ol’ Barçaathletic and to look at the eyes at Madrid while dreaming of entering the Champions League. In fact, it was not the first club in the demarcation. Nor the second, nor the third. Not the fourth. Because yes, Girona has had gray, dark and gloomy times in which its survival has literally hung by a thread. And the protagonists of this piece of club history, which from 1996 to 2003 sailed between Third i First Catalan they could easily be considered heroes. On the contrary, few remember that they kept the club alive “with a shoe and an espadrille” and have been forgotten by the passage of time and a much more stimulating reality. One of these supporting actors is David Padilla (Girona, 1977) who, with 235 red-and-white games on his back, is the twelfth player with the most games in the club’s history, which is soon to be said. “The framework was different from now. I am part of Girona’s history, a more modest history, but at the end of the day, also history. I do not brag about it because it has never been my temperament, but I do feel proud to have defended these colors for so many years. And I did the same in Tercera and Primera Catalana that I would have done in First, if I had had the chance to live in the present era». Maybe not him, but his children Leo i Eric yes, they brag about being a father and when they explain that he played for Girona, “his friends are hallucinating” and he gets a little confused. “The new generations know the Girona of today. The one of First and of second. I don’t feel small for having played in Tercera. Nothing,” says Padilla, who works as a computer engineer at the Deputationa job he started doing when he was playing for Girona.
???? 5️⃣ years ago today we achieved a historic triumph at the Santiago Bernabéu! ✨❤️???? pic.twitter.com/OSqbT6zBWo
— Girona FC (@GironaFC) February 17, 2024
Padilla’s name is irrevocably associated with the left back. Powerful, deep, tireless and heavy, the Girona native landed in Montilivi in 1995 with the team in Tercera just relegated from Segona B. And that during the entire training stage at Bon Aires he acted in front. And it wasn’t bad at all. On the contrary. And if not, Real Madrid would not have noticed and invited him to do some tests for ten days in the white sports city. “There were five or six of us and we were staying in a hotel they have there. We trained with the youth team he was in little. At the end of the sessions we matched the first team and had to play Redondo o Laudrup…», he remembers.
Padilla did not seduce the white coaches and Girona welcomed him with open arms. He was only seventeen years old and was beginning to see what semi-professional amateur football was all about. “In the early years, we were very young and fair. The club didn’t care for more. However, we were Girona and we had the obligation, because of the name, to fight to go up or, if not, at least not to go down”, remembers Padilla. The difficulties were maximum in a club where “every year in January the pennies ran out and we ended the seasons with a stick and a cane”. For Padilla, there were two key moments that served to slightly change the course of the entity. “First the arrival of Pere Gratacós in 1997. He reminds me a lot of Míchel. He knew a ton of football and, on top of that, he was a genius in locker room management. The other moment was the arrival of the Rochewhen a serious and solid club structure was made and calé came in».
The necessary return of Yangel and Blind
He never had a representative and perhaps that prevented him from once tasting Second B. “Padilla will continue. He’s the boy of the house”, he was heard saying. He was always the last one offered to renew and he always renewed. “I had the opportunity to go to Segona B in Figueres with Pere Gratacós and also to Palamós in Piterman. That time they were really scared because it appeared in the newspaper that he signed for Palamós. I thought, ‘look, maybe I’m important for the club and they value me'”, he remembers. There were eight seasons in Montilivi in which he enjoyed Gratacós and Robithe best coaches he’s ever had, and from Javi Garcia, the best player. “He left when and how he wanted. In addition, he had charisma». The stage at Girona ended in 2003 with promotion to Segona B a Eagles. “I saw myself able to play there, however Narcís Julià told me they were looking for another profile. I accepted it.” That summer he received the club’s gold badge in recognition of the age of eight. If a book were to be written about his time in Girona, he would not buy the title When we weren’t the best. “Sometimes we were the best because we won one League and go up twice. I would stay with When we were much more modest».
2024-02-18 05:30:01
#childrens #friends #hallucinate #played #Girona
