Antonio Escudero, the vice-president of Barça who has a castle and is fond of bulls

BarcelonaAntonio Escudero (Salobre, Albacete, 1954), the vice-president of Joan Laporta’s board of directors with less media presence, has a castle. Specifically in Biart, north of Figueres. There is a cellar where Castell de Biart wines mature and a small bullring. “In the year 2000, with a group of partners (he is the majority), we bought the castle. Wines were already made there before and we tried to redo it according to our possibilities”, explains Escudero to ARA. “We built a small wooden bullring there when my nephew got married. I am fond of bulls. We did some there weather of cows, but we haven’t used it for a while now. Sometimes I paint it”, he adds.

The absence of the social vice-president that drew the most attention was that of the assembly of October 23, 2021 in which, among other issues, a vote was taken as to whether the World Supporters’ Confederation continued to be part of the club. In fact, the only moment in which Escudero has taken on a certain public prominence since he has been at Barça was the meeting of the board on May 31, 2022, held at La Jonquera in his honor. Sports vice-president Rafa Yuste, economic vice-president Eduard Romeu, institutional vice-president and board spokesperson Maria Elena Fort and marketing vice-president Juli Guiu are much more present in the Barça media landscape. “Escudero has a discreet profile. He never wants to be the protagonist. It’s not at all common to see him around the Camp Nou offices, just as many other managers don’t go there either”, explains a person from the club.

Escudero’s arrival at the Camp Nou box office in the spring of 2021, coinciding with Laporta’s election victory, did not change his place of residence. He continues to live in La Jonquera, where he has his business empire. He arrived there in 1972 from Salobre, a Manche town that today has around 500 inhabitants. His first job in La Jonquera was as a waiter at the Hotel Porta d’Espanya and now he has an immense outlet called Gran Jonquera, three hypermarkets, six restaurants, a hotel and a parapharmacy. “When I was 17, I worked 18 hours a day in exchange for 1,500 pesetas a month (9 euros)”, remembers Escudero. In December 1972 he started working in a customs agency, where he stayed until 1990, when he opened his first supermarket. Before, in 1984, he had already bought a premises to start the business.

Considering his place of residence, two hours by car from Camp Nou, and his busy business schedule (he is also responsible for several business associations), how does he manage to devote time to Barça tasks? “I sleep between three and a half and four hours,” he replies. “I can be in Girona in the morning for a business meeting and spend the afternoon in Barcelona for a Barça board meeting or a match. And then, before returning home, I still stop by La Jonquera’s office”, he says. In this regard, sources from the World Supporters’ Confederation explain to this newspaper that they maintain “dialogue with him based on the activities” they share, which Escudero “attends assiduously”.

The initial core of the directive

In Escudero it was common to see him during the events of Joan Laporta’s electoral campaign. In fact, he was part of the original candidacy, with Juli Guiu, Maria Elena Fort, Jordi Llauradó and Jaume Giró. Escudero was one of the few who had enough wealth to provide a large guarantee. In fact, a person close to Laporta tells ARA that “Escudero is on the board because he has a lot of money and is obedient”.

The answer to how he met Laporta must also be sought in Jonquera, where the Barcelona social vice-president became a councilor of the PSC. The ancestors of the current president of Barça lived there and the family manor still stands. This geographical coincidence brought them closer together during Laporta’s first term at Barça and also meant that the lawyer thought of Escudero, who was president of Girona from 1998 to 2001, when formulating his candidacy for the elections of 2021. “It’s been a while since everything I do in this life is for fun. I don’t do anything for money anymore, because I already have that covered. In places, I go there to contribute, not for xupar like others do”, says the vice-president who is least media-savvy of the Barça leadership.