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The goal which lights up the day (*) Football songs by Joan Manuel Serrat and Joaquín Sabina Jesús Castañón Rodríguez Joan Manuel Serrat and Joaquín Sabina are two of the most respected singer-songwriters in Latin-America. They were born in Barcelona and Jean respectively and have become reporters of times and sincere wishes, people who transmit melancholy, hope, moans and sense of humor applied to great themes, agreements, little daily life things… Both, Joan Manuel Serrat and Sabina share the popular passion for football, with their intense emotions and uncontrollable happiness or suggestions to share personal experiences. Their football experience, reflected in nine different songs, leads to four focal points of interest. A Vital Expression Firstly, the experience of the football club as vital expression. Serrat as a supporter of F.C. Barcelona and Sabina as supporter of Club Atlético of Madrid. The
first one is identified with the entity to go usually to the matches,
participate in charity matches with the club's old wins, victories,
admire Kubala deeply and collaborate on the functions of the Centenary
in 1999 singing the hymn with a choir of 120.000 voices in the Nou
Camp. This communion of Serrat with the team wearing the blue-red
shirt is so great that it's reflected by Joaquín Sabina in
his theme "Mi primo el Nano". And the second one, as well as going to the pitch, is identified with the red and white image related to the suffering but relieved by an unexpected fact, related to the blind faith and to the modern and urban picaresque novel. He also collaborates on the functions of the Centenary in 2003 composing the hymn "Motivos de un centenario" in a triple version of band, rock and roll and joke with band where invited soloists collaborate like Antonio Carmona, Lichis, Josele de Santiago and Germán Burgos; also Musical and Artistic Group named San Francesç de Borja (Gandía) and the joke The seven swines (Cádiz) take part; and besides a choir of guests takes part as well, and which is made up of distinguished club lovers belonging to the gastronomy, humor, performance, literature, music, press or bullfighting world: Ketama, Mago de Voz, Nacho García Vega, Chus Visor, José Ribagorda, Juan Pedro Valentín, José Ramón de la Morena, Fernando Schwartz, Vicente Vallés, José Antonio Abellán, Juan Luis Cano, Miguel Abellán, Lucio, Miguel San Román, Ansorena and Pepe Navarro. In this hymn he tries to tell the reasons of an inexplicable feeling which is able to captivate Prince of Asturias, which takes place with familiarity in the stadiums Metropolitano and Vicente Calderón beyond the scores and the naming like "Atlético de Aviación" (Atlético of Aviation) or "Atlético de Madrid" (Atlético of Madrid). This is a special way to stand up to, grow up, mature, feel, dream, learn, suffer, lose, win and die which has been led, according to the song, by the presidents Alfonso Cabeza and Jesús Gil and by the trainers Radomir Antic and Luis Aragonés and by the players Adelardo, Aguilera, Ayala, Ben Barek, Calleja, Caminero, Collar, Futre, Gárate, Griffa, Heredia, Jayo, Juninho, Kiko, Leivinha, López, Mendoza, Ovejero, Pantic, Pereira, Peiró, Rivilla, Rubén Cano, Santi, Simeone, Solozábal, Toni, Ufarte and Vavá. Feature of situations Secondly, football becomes an ideal element to characterize situations and periods. If we take into account the case of Serrat, it is used to evoke the city of Barcelona in the post-war period with melancholy: black market, tram, football…"Basora, César, Kubala i Manchón" form the part of the chorus of the theme "Temps era temps", composed in Catalan language. Talking about Sabina, it's used to describe the hope, youthful dreams and varied situations of the city of Madrid. The first one appears in "Tango del quinielista", story between signs where football and the pools are elements which betray dreams and hopes to improve, where the redeeming luck is shown as an elusive element for poor people who live through the Sunday faded afternoons waiting for a stroke of luck to be able to flourish. Youthful dreams based on having the membership card of Atlético of Madrid, dreaming of singing and the fact of conquering the world constitute the base for "La canción más hermosa del mundo". The blind faith in an irreparable stroke of luck that can save everything, the lightning of the unforeseeable nature and the highly intense emotion that characterize the Atlético of Madrid are used in "Semos diferentes". It was the original soundtrack of Torrente II to emphasize the modern and urban picaresque novel and the forms together with the president Jesús Gil's peculiarities and style , as well as the superintendent's peculiarities as well (main character of the film). The experience of Rayo Vallecano, with a poor style based on continuous relegation to Second Division, gives the disillusionment of an unrequited love some atmosphere in a "Barbie Superstar" way, leading it to be a candidate for actress and model that, after walking round all the short cuts based on ambition to try to come out of the neighborhood, is on the decline.
Singer-songwriters praise artistically footballers who have attracted their attention. Serrat raises to the myth in "Kubala" due to his skill to go into the penalty area and set the ball on way to the glory of a goal. He emphasizes that personally, even though the history of football pays more attention to Pelé, Maradona or Di Stéfano as better football players. Sabina recreates Riquelme and Jorge Valdano in time to the tango. He dedicates to Boca Juniors' goal scorer in the Intercontinental Cup in 2000, "Dieguito y mafaldas", a topic where he portrays the Argentine who has suffered hard times and who is on the way to the ground called "La Bombonera" to dream of the unattainable woman, to mitigate the badly healed myths to certain dreams can become true in happy explosion after the Boca and Palermo's pieces of play. On the other hand, in "Un tango para Valdano", the blue and white champion is turned into a Gardel of the stadium: he dances with the ball, speaks in a lunfardo way with the ball, looks for Maradona in his play, he's also stadiums poet, philosopher of changing rooms and aesthete trainer of football. Towards a literary dimension A forth and last focus of attention is made up of a literary dimension to emphasize lyrical poetry, the rhythm of the ball, emotions bottled into short structures… Joan
Manuel Serrat was jury of the Premio de Poesía Deportiva
Juan Antonio Samaranch, which the weekly magazine Don Balón
organized together with Manuel Alcántara, José Luis
Córdoba, Romá Cuyá, Pedro Ruiz and Esteban
Conde. And Joaquín Sabina receives César Vallejo's
clear influences with the description of human sorrow, the tormented
experiences and the grey lives which look for a hope ray, like in
the "Tango del quinielista". Epilogue: alchemists of emotions To
conclude, Joan Manuel Serrat and Joaquín Sabina are a duet
for musical and literary expression of sport. Since melancholy and
sadness or even since wit, inventiveness and fun, they make words
of sport dance till these words can stay in collective memory and
get a fantastic goal which lights up the day. Records SABINA,
Joaquín: "Tango del quinielista", Inventario. Madrid,
1978. Bibliography CASTAÑÓN
RODRÍGUEZ, Jesús, "Joan
Manuel Serrat y el deporte", Idioma y deporte número
13, Valladolid, 11 de diciembre de 2000. __________ (*) The first version of this article is published in Lecturas: Eduación Física y Deportes (Buenos Aires). Traducción: María Elena Martín Pérez
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