The 1899 Auditorium was filled at a Culer de l’Any Gala in which a lot of Barcelona spirit was breathed and all the successes experienced by the club this season were celebrated
The first football teams, Pau Gasol, Alex Roca, Joan Manuel Serrat and Mago Pop were the winners
The Culer de l’Any Gala also served to the debut of the new director of SPORT, Joan Vehils, who takes over from Lluís Mascaró, appointed director of sports information for Prensa Ibérica. He was congratulated by the sports vice-president of FC Barcelona, Rafa Yuste, who wished them luck in their new tasks and wanted to remind them of the importance and attachment that SPORT has for all the Barcelona fans.
“I’m coming back wanting,” Vehils began, recalling that he was already director of the header from 2007 to 2015.
“The SPORT newspaper will always be by Barça’s side”, was his great declaration of intent. Asked about the cover that he remembered the most from his first stage, he did not hesitate. The one he did in December 2009 after Barça won the Club World Cup in Abu Dhabi, became the best team in the world and won the sextet, a feat that only the Barça club and Bayern Munich have achieved throughout history.
Then he addressed Agustí Gasol, Pau’s father, to explain that many years ago his son received an award. With Alex Roca, Culer Solidari award, he took off his (symbolic) hat. “I always wave to Alex. He is an example of improvement and let’s see what new challenge he surprises us with now ”. From Joan Manuel Serrat he wanted to highlight his optimism and vitality. “This prize should be won every year by Joan Manuel Serrat”. And they did not forget that they lived through a tough defeat in Munich against Bayern together. The German team has been one of the black beasts of the Barca team in recent seasons.
After the words of the director of SPORT, Joan Vehils, Lluís Mascaró took the stage, who a few days ago is the head of sports information for the entire Prensa Ibérica group. Mascaró was very satisfied at having been able to step down after a season in which Barça has regained the League title after four seasons. “It has been an enormous satisfaction as a culé that I am. Seeing Barça recover their enthusiasm after the triple crisis they have experienced fills you with joy. The club wins again, ”he said. Mascaró also insisted that one of SPORT’s founding principles is “to be by Barça’s side” despite the fact that “there are people who don’t think so”. “We are the first newspaper that openly declared itself culer. If Barça win titles, SPORT is doing well, ”he declared.
Both Joan Vehils and Lluís Mascaró were congratulated by those present at the gala for their new responsibilities.
Rafa Yuste’s speech
In absence of President Joan Laporta, in Riyadh for professional reasons, it was the turn of the first vice president and sportsman, Rafa Yuste, to host the Culer de l’Any Gala, organized by the club, SPORT and sponsored by CaixaBank. In a packed 1899 Auditorium, Yuste began by explaining that these days had been “greatly emotional” after the league titles for the first men’s and women’s teams had been won and to live la Rúa through the streets of the city of Barcelona and the celebrations at the SPOTIFY Camp Nou and the Johan Cruyff stadium.
“It has been a brilliant and very important season.” Yuste wanted to remember that when they came to the management of the club, it was in a very complicated situation. “We come from a bottomless pit, from a club without values. Laporta had the courage and prayer and taking risks we have been able to win the League. Congratulations President!” he said.
Asking about the team’s challenges for next season, he wanted to be prudent but with ambition, without giving up anything. “We always start from the premise of work. We must be humble, we will try to win as many titles as possible but we have to go game by game. Little by little and good lyrics”.
Words to the winners
Rafa Yuste also wanted to have a few words for all the winners at the Culer de l’Any Gala. She confessed to Joan Manuel Serrat that she cried the other day and quoted part of the song that she dedicated to Kubala. “La para amb el cap, l’abaixa amb el pit…”. “Thank you very much Joan. You are a great person and a great culer”.
To Antonio Díaz, the ‘Pop Magician’, a genius in the art of illusionism and magic, he told him that like him, Barcelona fans had also recovered the illusion and that the stadium “refills”. Addressing the parents of Pau Gasol (his son is in the United States at the moment) he congratulated them because Pau is one of the best athletes in all of history and sent him a hug, also for his brother Marc.
Paul too was present at the SPORT Gala through a recorded video in which he recalled that despite spending a large part of his career abroad, he had always taken the values of Barça with him. And to Alex Roca, he told him that he was an example of improvement and revealed that in one of his talks he made the first team players cry.