“More and more French people are coming to see us play”: what is this Girona club, which dominates La Liga?

2023-12-10 09:16:18

Like Leicester, this club without much history crowned champion of England in 2016, Girona is arousing the admiration and curiosity of European football fans. In a championship dominated without sharing for twenty years by the trio Real Madrid-FC Barcelona-Atlético de Madrid, the club appears as an intruder and above all a UFO by dominating the powerful La Liga since the start of the season. Co-leader with Real Madrid before this 16th day, Girona, or Girona as they say in Catalonia, its 100,000 souls and its 55 million budget, even has the opportunity to take the lead alone this Sunday evening by winning at its home powerful neighbor of FC Barcelona.

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A challenge that goes beyond the athlete. On the one hand, the very international Barcelona, ​​whose prestige goes hand in hand with a certain loss of identity. Today, Catalan is almost no longer spoken in the streets, but Castilian (the Spanish taught in high school), English and French. Small businesses have closed to make way for big brands. And rents have become exorbitant for families. And on the other, Girona. The “real” capital of Catalonia for many. Stronghold of the separatists who made headlines in 2017 by demanding a break with the Spanish government. A wave of arrests or exiles of its leaders followed. After being set ablaze, Girona now feels the calm and the wood fire which softens the emerging cold of December.