Barcelona hosts a soccer match where all the players have the same name

2023-11-25 21:00:43

Barcelona It’s Saturday morning and the sun helps to take the cold better now that it’s time to play football. In a field of the Brafa Foundation, north of Barcelona, ​​the players are arriving. Some know each other from before, others don’t. “No need to introduce ourselves, do we?” says the most veteran of them all. And of course you don’t have to, since all the players are called Albert. In a few minutes, a match will begin that has become the nightmare of every football narrator, because you cannot narrate a match where all the players are called the same. Only one thing differentiates them: in a team everyone is called Albert Soler, with r end In the other, Albert Solé, with an accent. A single letter to separate two groups of people marked by great rivalry, with a sense of humor. “The others are impostors,” says one in an accent. “They didn’t know how to defend the rwhich is our source of pride”, replies a rival.

With some relatives cheering, the players warm up and get to know each other. “Yesterday I asked if I could play in hiking boots,” says one who never plays soccer. “I’m sure his name isn’t Albert Solé”, joke two players when they see how one of the opposing team plays it well enough. “So much nonsense to look for Alberts Solers and you don’t ask for ID”, they joke with the organizer of the meeting, Albert Soler from Igualada, who, while working in a cooperative of communication and cultural management, has confused a colleague of work to record everything. In addition, it has chants from football stadiums to play in the background and a recording where the line-up of the match is sung. A long list of Alberts, of course. In the Solé team, with an accent, there is a father and a son with the same name. In the Soler team, one stands out who has played football and is now a coach at Unió Esportiva Vic. He will be the one to decide the game with three goals and give the victory to the Solers who have one r final, by 6 to 2. At halftime, however, the result was a two-goal tie.

It all started 10 years ago. It was November 23, 2013 and a group of 14 people met in Barcelona. What did they have in common? They were all called the same: Albert Soler. “In the end you had a kind of identity crisis, mixed with so many people with the same name,” says Albert Soler Fernández, from Igualada, the organizer. Then, the ARA followed the meeting. Who signed the news? The journalist Albert Solé. “A guy sent an email to the ARA saying that he was looking for people who were called like him. And I received it, my name is Albert Solé. It was amazing. He told me the story, it was funny to me and I cover the news of the meeting, calling it “The importance of being called Albert Soler.” Then I jokingly asked him if the Alberts who call ourselves Solé, without the r, we were welcome. And no, the meeting was not for us, but the joke was made that one day we could play the game between us,” explains journalist Albert. In the game that was played this Saturday, he no longer covered the information He played the game defending the shirt of Alberts Solé.

“Having the same name marks you, it’s always strange and fun to talk to someone with the same name as you”, says an Albert Soler, with r. “I have come across cases of people who have the same name as me and when we match, they don’t like it. In the end, we all think that the name is unique, personal. And when you find that you share it, not everyone takes it with humour”, adds a Albert Solé without r. In fact, when Albert Solé Fernández started sending emails and messages through social networks to people he encountered with his name, not everyone responded. At that first meeting 10 years ago, some Alberts Solers discovered that, among those present, three were left-handed and right-handed. They had never met anyone with this characteristic, and suddenly they were finding others with the same name. “It’s a way to meet people, have a good time and share experiences,” says organizer Albert. Those who went had a great time, with a game played between jokes and a ubiquitous word. Albert here, Albert there.

But how is it all born? With a work project from Albert the organizer. “I immediately saw that it was something different, our case. That we are many people with the same name. I remember creating my personal project 10 years ago now. I was freelance and I wanted to use my name to explain how to professional. And all the domains were taken. Only the one from Montenegro remained free: Albertsoler.me, which was not bad. So I started tossing around the idea of ​​holding a meeting.” That first e-mail with a Balkan domain started everything, since it was used to send e-mails to other Alberts he found on social networks. “Now we have more hair, experience and, in my case, more work. I work in a cooperative for culture and sustainability projects,” he adds.

One of those who did not go this year is Albert Soler Sicília, who went to the meeting 10 years ago. Former MP of the PSC in Congress, ex-trustee of Josep Maria Bartomeu at Barça and with a recent past in the Superior Sports Council, Albert Soler Sicília admits: “I like it when I find someone, it’s fun. It’s very interesting the question of when you lose the r, as with other surnames. In our case it would be a surname with roots towards Valencia. There is a heraldic shield with a sun and a tower,” he says. Albert Soler Fernández remembers: “At home they always told me that it was necessary to defend the rto be clear”. On both sides, they defend that his last name is the most authentic. One of the most veterans of the team with r end remembers at the end of the game: “You end up with the same chant all your life: “Soler with rSoler with r». Because you don’t want to pronounce the last name with the r marked, which does not sound Catalan. Pronounce Soler without radding that we bring r“, he explains. With r or without, that is the question. And to decide who is in charge, a duel was organized with a ball in the middle.

Albert Soler vs. Albert Solé: The soccer match where all the players have the same name

“Already at that meeting, the Solers took a picture of us as if we were a football team. And there was talk of doing the duel with those without the r. There is rivalry, we all argue that we are the originals,” says Soler Fernández, who remembers how he discovered a comic strip that showed him that there are people doing the same thing elsewhere: in 2001 the US film director Alan Berliner he invited 13 people with his name to dinner and made a movie about it.

The Alberts played a game that included interviews, a marksmanship competition and an anthem. “To one of the Alberts with r they made him some kind of love song years ago. A girl was in love with him, but he ignored her. So she made him a song where Albert Soler’s name is playing,” explains Albert d’Igualada. The two teams went out to play as if it were an official match and, together, they heard this anthem for the first time beat between laughs. All, with shirts to play the match. The Alberts Solé without r, by the way, they have played with the fair players, five. Which explains why they deflated in the second half, as they said by having a third-time vermouth, sharing stories and getting to know each other a little more, without the risk of getting their names wrong.