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Emilio Butragueño evokes Fernando Lázaro Carreter

The connection of football to linguistic correctness

Jesús Castañón Rodríguez

On the evening of March 15th, 2004 Idioma y Deporte went to the Santiago Bernabéu stadium to do one thing: to interview a sportsman who finds a moment of satisfaction and internal joy of reading in this rough life; a chat with a sport figure to talk about a genius of the language.

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Emilio Butragueño, the idol of the Real Madrid, Atlético Celaya and Spanish National Team, and currently Advisor of the Sport General Management of the Real Madrid, received Idioma y Deporte at the office of the stadium to introduce the subject and talk about his admiration, relation and experience with Fernando Lázaro Carreter, a person who became Director of the Real Academia Española (1).

Profile

Emilio Butragueño Santos was born in Madrid in 1963. His career is linked to Calasanz School, Real Madrid Amateur, Castilla, Real Madrid and the Mexican team Atlético Celaya. Champion of two UEFA Coups, five leagues, two King Coups and three victories in the Spanish Supercoup. International player in 69 occasions, he was the top scorer of the Spanish Selection until the year 2001, with 26 goals. As a manager, he has been bound to the Sport Superior Council of Spain and the Real Madrid. He has the gold medal of the Royal Order of the Sport Merit.

How the relation with Lázaro Carreter arose?

It started when I studied his book of language with extraordinary exercises during COU (2), at the Escolapios High School on Gaztambide Street. Then when I used to play football, I read the section El Dardo en la Palabra (3) on the third page of ABC (4) and was impressed with an article about how journalists used the language and how he considered that they had a great responsibility. He described all the mistakes in a very funny way with a lot of irony. Although the level of the contents was high, it was pleasant to read. I didn't know how often he wrote these articles, but I collected them until all of them were compiled in the book El Dardo en la Palabra.

A few years later the relation became closer...

When I came back from the United States, I phoned the Real Academia Española from the Sport Superior Council looking for him. He was a bit surprised.

I told him that I was a fan of his articles and very much impressed by them. I also told him that I would very much like him to give me a series of articles focussed on promoting the good use of the language because I felt myself identified with some of the mistakes he described. I made those same mistakes, and I asked him if he could give me advise about books dealing with those specialized subjects. In my opinion, an affectionate relation, at least from my side, started at that moment and has lasted ever since.

And was evolving to a higher level...

After that, when I joined the Real Madrid, we wanted to develop a project in relation with the centenary of the organisation in 2002: to write a great book about the history of the Real Madrid. I phoned him to ask for advise about someone who would like to write it from a deeper and sociological point of view and with a prestigious style. That is the moment when a more continuous relation arose. From that time, we talked often, we met in several occasions and we even invited him to see the football matches…

In El dardo en la palabra there are numerous references to the club and the Bernabéu stadium. In his last article, "Lo normal" (5), he speaks about how the Real Madrid is involved in three competitions, the pronunciation of Queiroz and he mentions Ronaldo and the match with the Betis in January 2004.

It is true. He spoke about different matches and he defended Jorge Valdano in the way he used adjectives. He thought that the Bernabéu stadium was impressive. When we invited him, he came to the president's box.

During the matches, I sat beside him. He was very discreet and calm, he never complained about the referee… He was very polite, very charming. I felt a lot of fondness for him. He was exigent with the players because he expected a lot from them. He loved his Zaragoza. We had invited him for the match of March 13th, 2004.

How was his behaviour related to football?

He was very sincere. You realised that he spoke with the moral authority that life gives to someone who was very superior in something and who has played a main roll in the history of Spain. At the same time, he was very ironic with an elegant though biting way of criticising. When I was with him, I felt embarrassed and did not want to speak because I could imagine what he would think. But he was a very charming man.

What factors made this relation easier?

It is interesting that such relevant man in the field of language was such fan of football, considering that this sport was not well considered 20-25 years ago. It seemed that football was apart from the cultured world, the intellectual world. However, Lázaro Carreter established a bridge. He notices that football is a performance that reaches the heart of people and has the strength of the feelings and is the mirror in which society would like to look itself in. Its massive audience became a school with millions of people seeing a match. Everything what they are listening to has a great repercussion because the level of concentration is very high. Lázaro Carreter took the Academy close to football and football means the connection to the people. This gives an idea of his wisdom.

And what was his attitude about sport language which is considered by him to be creative and a "vergel de provocaciones verbales" (6) at the same time?

He thought that it was very rich and he understood that it was difficult not to repeat always the same thing along a ninety minutes long broadcasting.

He understood that people tried to be very imaginative and keep the discourse alive. He looked for a good usage of the language; he did not want people to stop inventing and being creative.

He analysed the impoverishment of language and thinking. He was resigned himself to the resistance of sport journalists to any correction and he co-operated with sport journalism...

There is a series of articles that he wrote in Marca (7). In some of them he suggested to organise seminars on language with the managers of the media in order to use these windows to improve the language usage. Lázaro Carreter was very keen on football and Zaragoza. He was an avid reader and listener who listened to Carrusel Deportivo (8) on the radio at night. He wanted to come into contact with the society and the vocabulary of the radio was a good image of the one used by most of the Spaniards.

With his permanent eagerness to learn, what could professional sport give to him?

Some satisfaction. Sports allow you to get identified with the best of yourself, it is hope, to have a sense, to wait for something with enthusiasm. It is life.

Notes

(1) Academy of the Spanish Language. (2) COU (Curso de Orientación Universitaria) used to be a one-year course for the university entrance examination. (3) The Dart on the Word. (4) A national daily newspaper. (5) The Normal. (6) Garden of verbal provocations. (7) A sport newspaper. (8) A radio sport programme.

Traducción: Vidis Comunicación