Goodbye Dani Jarque
By: Armando | August 12th, 2009
It’s not that I didn’t want to write anymore on Dani Jarque, that I didn’t think the story was important to continue, not at all, but I didn’t want to belabor the point. I didn”t want to drag it out or be disrespectful, or even take advantage of it at all. When tragedies like this happen there is almost a tendency to over-emote, to exaggerate one’s loss. It is important to mourn, but our grief just doesn’t compare to what the family of Dani Jarque is going through. So I’ll finish the story and of course I will be referring back to it alot this year as I think it’ll be the dominant story influencing the team for, well for along time from now.
First of all, from almost the beginning, the club pressured the famously slow Italian bureacracy to move faster than it is legally bound to; coordinate with them, accelerate the autopsy and release the remains to the club for ‘repatriation’ as they call it. Who do we have to thank for smoothing out the process in record time? None other than Silvio Berlusconi. He gets criticized alot for his personally life bleeding into his professional life as Italian Prime Minister.
Moving on, as I wrote last time, the supporters had erected a makeshift shrine near Gate 21 (his kit number) where flowers, candles, posters, flags and scarves had been adorned in his memory, well yesterday the club offered a more official service for the player. After his remains had been flown into Barcelona, the club opened the Stadium and allowed supporters to file in and pay their respects for the club’s fallen captain. Well over 15,000 people shuffled through, supporters of Espanyol sure, but also from practically every club in Spain. Amongst them were club representatives, Joan Laporta from Barca, Florentino Perez from Real Madrid, and many others big and small. Ex team-mates, ex-coaches like Ernesto Valverde and Miguel Angel Lotina, a ceremony that brought the whole of Spanish football together.
It was a beautiful ceremony, you can see highlights of it on all the major football sites in Spain, but the most impressionable words came from the Sevilla contingent as reported in as.com: VP Pepe Castro, technical director Monchi, and (ex-Espanyol fullback) Sergio Sánchez and Goalkeeper Andrés Palop. Palop said it best, ” This is not something you overcome. This stays with you for your entire life. We continue with the burden of what happened to Antonio (Puerta) to this day: He’s in training with us, on trips, in the stadium, and in every street in Seville. This is a horror to carry with you for life.”
Category: Espanyol Team News
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Yo quiero dar mis abrazos por todo del Espanyol, todo es muy trieste, perdimos un futbolista, buen hombre y an gran personaje, el mejor para el club, su mujer, su familia y muchos mas, pienso a todos!
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Gracias Armando for your elaborate, thoughtful, and utterly respectful posts about the passing of Dani Jarque. We understand the reason your postings about this sad event will end now; as you wrote, “I didn‘t want to drag it out or be disrespectful, or even take advantage of it at all.“ No fear, your postings have been filled with sentiment and respect. You also wrote, “I will be referring back to it a lot this year as I think it’ll be the dominant story influencing the team for, well for along time from now.“ I agree with your appreciation wholeheartedly. I think no matter how much the team will try to overcome this tragic success in the months to come –by pouring all those feelings of loss into their play in the field, as a living homage to their friend and captain– it is going to be an awfully hard thing for them to do. This is especially true considering the kind of club that the Espanyol is, a small, close-knit club where everybody (players, families, fans) feels very close to each other. I wish everybody at the “familia de l‘Espanyol“ my sincerest best for the year they are about to start. Above all, I wish them emotional strength and unity. I will certainly be rooting all the way from here.
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cant get over it.very hard being an english espanyol fan..just so sad…i think pericos have huge potential if managed right(in a business sense)…ticketing is crap ,communication is crap,web site still talks “montjuic”…but but but espanyol,you are for me,and danni jarque ,thankyou,RIP
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Greetings from the Valencia blog. I have created a La Liga forum (in English) on my website and everyone is free to join. My website is a Valencia CF news site, but the forum itself is for all La Liga teams, Each team has their own seperate forum. I look forward to seeing as many different fans from as many different teams as possible.
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