“I came here looking for a quieter life,” admits Lídia mid-walk. Born 24 years ago in Michigan, arrived in the province of Girona two years ago and today is one of the 185 people who reside in Estanyol. He doesn’t even know who he is, though she is a neighbor of Pau Cubarsí. The penultimate pearl of La Masia.
He answers on a Wednesday morning in the town square, a few meters from the church and the cemetery. More than a third of the 130 niches are empty, but more: the 1, the 4, the 5, the 7 and an infinite et cetera. “The door closes automatically. If you are locked inside press the button and it will open,” says a sign right next to the cemetery door. You hardly see people. Every now and then a bike, a car or a van passes by, interrupting the singing of the birds.
tin, part of the municipality of Bescano, it doesn’t have a football field. It has an infinite number of scattered farmhouses and a core with five or six houses, a restaurant and a carpentry shop: the Cubarsi Fusteria. A Googler Cubarsí Estanyol the carpentry still appears before the player, who turned 17 in January.
The central’s great-grandfather opened the business, Joan. “It came in the 40s, I think. As in those years, carpenters didn’t have much work either he also worked as a barber. He shaved my husband the day we got married,” says Maria Collell (1932), her voice rough with age: 92 years old. She is speaking in the hall of her house, the first in the town driving from Girona. 350 meters separate the entrance and exit signs for Estanyol. “It’s a small town, but we’re good here,” he says.
Working family
Remember the great-grandfather loading door liners with a Mobylette, aged 80 or more. “It’s a very hardworking family all his life,” he adds. All the furniture in the house is from Fusteria Cubarsí: from the great-grandfather, grandfather or father and uncle, who are currently in charge of the business. “A few days ago the father came to to fix a blind and he explained to me that his son plays in it Barça. I was very happy and very proud. He told me that they don’t have holidays nowbut that they enjoy a lot,” he smiles happily. He continues: “One day when leaving mass a lady from the village said: ‘Let’s clap because we have a Barça playerMass is held once a month in Estanyol.
Montse, another neighbor, explains from behind the bar of the Estanc Nou restaurant that every year, at Christmas, gives a Barça shirt to each of his six grandchildrenfive boys and a girl, and what now everyone wants to have it signed by Cubarsí. “Everyone here has to freak out as much as they can because there is no daycare or school“, he adds about Estanyol. The village school closed in the middle of the century. Cubarsí grew up in the school of Vilablareix: from P3 to sixth grade.
A Vilablareix he built his life and he also started playing soccer. David Garcia (1975), first coach, remembers his first day: a Monday afternoon in September, the first day of the course. “It had to be in 2013,” he recalls. “He came with his parents and they told us that he really liked football and that he was with a ball all day. He has super good parents, very hardworking. They are not fathers of a city, but more of a village,” he says.
“It made the difference. In the fields we could hear people saying things like: ‘Hostia, today we are playing against Pau Cubarsí'”
He continues: “I was impressed from day one. It was central, but it was one of those who scored more goals. He would catch the ball, cross the field and score.” “There was a girl in the team, Jana. One day she wanted to be the goalkeeper and they scored a goal and she was a little sad. Paul comforted her. We took off from the center, they passed the ball to him and he went forward alone to score. He then ran straight to the goal to celebrate the goal with Jana. He is a very good companion, since childhood,” he emphasizes.
“He’s earned it”
Emphasize that when he drove the ball he didn’t look at the groundlike the others, but that raised his head. They are going to conquer a countless tournaments and three consecutive leagues. Save a photo of one interview on local radiowith Cubarsí dressed in a Barça shirt. Li fascinaven Messi i Neymar. “He was saying that would play for Barça. And the effort has brought him here. He has fought and worked very hard to achieve all this. He has earned it. And I feel very proud and happy. I think: ‘Hey you’. I already get goosebumps when I see him on TV when I can see him at Camp Nou it will be too much for meGarcía agreed.
Al Vilablareix lasted very little because he was soon signed by the Girona and soon after the Barça (2018), but left one memory for a lifetime in many. Biel Ramirez (2007) continues in the club, now in youth B, and when he left class, a first-year high school student, he remembers that “three or four years. Or two” coincided. Time can blur memories, but not erase them. “It made the difference. In the fields we heard people say things like: ‘Hostia, today we play against Pau Cubarsí‘”. Forward in childhood and in the present, celebrated dozens of goals through Cubarsí. “He made us all play well. We all scored a lot of goals,” he says.
He has seen all of Cubarsí’s matches since his debut, like García, and assures that will buy his shirt with ’33’. “From little the dream of all of us who play football is to reach Barça and if you don’t get it, someone very close to you gets it you’re not happy anyway. It is the closest to achieving it. It’s been a long time since we met and maybe he doesn’t even know who I am, but I remember a lot about him. Besides, I played with him as a child and now he’s playing for Barça,” emphasizes Ramírez.
A week ago he scored a goal in the tie against Cornellà del Terri Bin the last level of the youth category.
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2024-02-25 15:59:01
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