Girona FC fans are dreaming with their eyes open. Their club is at heights it has never seen before: after 34 rounds of the Spanish championship, they are in 2nd place behind Real Madrid, they were a serious candidate for the title, and they will certainly play in the Champions League, and although this also means strengthening the staff, the Catalans may not give up the style of bringing footballers who are not so attractive, but fit perfectly into the system of coach Miguel Sanchez Munoz. It’s not so much of a surprise anymore. It’s not a good game anymore. Now it is already accepted as a reality. Girona is serious. Girona is truly high quality. And it is no coincidence that they are among the best in Primera. Where no one saw her. Not even themselves. How long will it last? Nobody can know, but the 4-2 win over Barcelona – and perhaps more so the manner in which it was achieved – cemented Girona’s status as Europe’s most exciting side. In that sense, only Bayer Leverkusen can match it this season.
European football longed for romance in football, i.e., small clubs capable of disrupting the established order in the strongest European leagues, so it is no wonder that fans of the most important secondary league in the world were so happy with the results achieved by teams such as Lecce at the beginning of the season, Brest or Girona. Everyone hopes that a new Leicester may appear very soon, which will disrupt the atmosphere in club football on the Old Continent, at least for a short while. When we speak about Girona, it can be said that nothing that happens in this club has many points of contact with coincidence. It is a club that functions as part of the City Group (Manchester City, New York City, Troyes, Montevideo, Yokohama, Palermo), which has provided the right logistics, but also financial stability, so it can plan and achieve its goals in complete tranquility.
Stable finances do not mean automatically throwing away money, but in Girona’s case, it represents a smart and responsible investment in creating a team. Players are brought in who weren’t good enough for giants such as Barcelona, Real Madrid, or Manchester City, they insist on cooperation with other clubs from the City Group, while only new players are brought in if they match the offensive style of this team. This is where we come to the key point when it comes to Girona, which is the football philosophy. At all costs, the Catalan club insists on an attacking attitude and outplaying the opponent through possession and a high rhythm, which has finally brought serious results this season.
Huge credit for everything that is happening at the moment at the Montilivi Stadium also goes to coach Michel, who has done a fantastic job in the last two and a half years. He returned Girona from Segunda to the Primera Division, last season he almost made it to the Euro competitions, and this season, he holds the second position and qualifies for the Champions League. In the past period, the Catalan club produced results but also improved the quality of the game, so it seems that Girona insists much more on the way to achieve victory than on the victory itself.
One of the key details when it comes to this season is the perfectly executed transition period, considering that the newcomers have become the most important players of the team. The fact that Dovbyk from Dnipro, who is the best scorer in the league at the moment already scored twenty goals and made six assists, is the most expensive paid, player in the history of the club. Even last season, Viktor Tsygankov and Paul Gazzaniga were successful (the Ukrainian arrived in January, and the Argentinian was purchased after a loan from Fulham), Alex Garcia is a true commander of the midfield, Erik Garcia and Daly Blind hold the defensive line. One player completely changed the physiognomy of the team and drove football fans in the Pyrenees completely crazy. In question is the young winger on loan from Troyes, Savio, who is widely compared to Vinicius Junior through the prism of their individual qualities.
The beaches of Costa Brava are 25 kilometers away. France is not far either. Tourists have something to do. Only football was not in the foreground. Even basketball was more popular for a long time. They cheered for Barca, Espanyol, and even Real. There were 200 people at the Girona matches. That all changed. Girona is no longer seen exclusively as a stepping stone. Girona does not renounce its history. It also includes years in the fifth league, then in the fourth, the last in the 2006/07 season. They were not a professional club for half a century until they returned to Segunda in 2008. Now, naturally, somehow, those people returned to the stands. Even in a city of 100,000 people, football is being talked about again. No one in Spain plays football as well as Girona at the moment. How long will it last? Who knows. The important thing is to enjoy it now.
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