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Around the neck of Vicente Miera Campos (Nueva Montaña, Cantabria, 1940) hangs an Olympic gold medal won in Barcelona 92 in which the only time Spain has organized a Games. The feat saw the light in a Camp Nou packed with 100,000 fans who vibrated in unison with the news that came from the Montjuïc stadium and what was happening there. The triumph of the men led by this serious and hardworking Cantabrian who had made a remarkable career as a footballer at Real Madrid with 7 Leagues, a European Cup and a Cup and that later he earned his living as a coach (1973-98), leaving in his wake a trail of professionalism that was almost always difficult to challenge.
At the age of 81 in May, Vicente enjoys his Santander of the soul and sees his daily tranquility upset because of the presence of the Olympic football team in the Yokohama final.
Don Vicente, 29 years later you have become fashionable again …
Whenever it is for a reason like this, that Spanish football achieves an important success, it is welcome. It means that we maintain a high level that allows us to win important competitions. Spanish football has always been among the best, sometimes winning and sometimes not. My life is very quiet now. Calmly. Fortunately the family is well, which is the most important …
Where do you keep the Barcelona gold medal after it was stolen in 2018 from the Santander Sports Museum to which you had given it?
There it continues. Fortunately, the Police recovered it after two or three days in Burgos and I returned it to the Museum where it can be seen by all its visitors … The one who took it was caught in Burgos. Police were great.
These days with the calls from the press and friends who remind him of Barcelona, I suppose he will have recovered the memories of that time.
“Now the important thing is what is happening and what comes with the final”
Well not so much. It happened many years ago and the important thing is what was achieved and that we were able to live it. Now the important thing is what is happening and what comes with the final. I wish the players all the luck in the world. That there are no injuries and that they can win because their performance is being fantastic, like that of the players I had then. I'm watching the games and I'm happy, how could I not be happy! with their triumphs.
The team is not playing well, but they win … His team in '92 won more clearly.
It is that people are increasingly prepared. Rivals know everything. It is not easy to be in the final. You have to assess the difficulties they put you. We also suffer. It wasn't easy, but we were a good team. We only received goals in the final. It was many days of work. I think it was 54 days in total concentrated. First in Cervera de Pisuerga, in Palencia, in an ideal place to recover the players who came from a difficult season. They came well shot. Even more. Those of Barcelona came from winning the Champions League, those of Madrid and Atlético from playing the Cup final and they joined later… Then we went to Valencia, which was where we played all the games except the final. In total, more than 60 players passed each other by the team. I called them in batches to meet everyone, until I was left with the final 20.
To reach the final 20, he had to rule out four footballers at the last minute: Mariano (Deportivo), Rafa (Lleida), Aguilá (Osasuna) and García Sanjuán (Zaragoza) …
Do not remind me of that, it was the worst thing that happened in my life. You had to tell him, they had worked a lot, you saw his face of illusion and he had to go. Good thing they made it easy for me and gave me a lesson. They told me that there were going to be four more of them and that they were going to be with the team as if they were there. I get excited just remembering his behavior. The team was all of us, they told me. It was an exciting time.
How did you decide to incorporate two psychologists into the group, Jesús García Barrera and Rosana Llames?
I knew them from Asturias. Jesús was the son of Falín, a well-known Oviedo player and I thought they would be important in those final weeks. I proposed it to them and they were delighted. The players were coming off a grueling season as we have talked about. It was an important date, different. The boys were fine with them. They were laughing and the atmosphere was fantastic. They were very good for us. It is always important that at a certain moment another person intervenes in the relationship, it is not always good to do everything yourself. It went well and is another of my great memories.
And the presence of Kubala in his technical team already 65 years old …
He could bring us his experience. I asked him to be with us and he did not hesitate. He was happier …
That team played the entire Championship with three centrals: López-Solozábal-Abelardo. Now this system has become fashionable again, but in those days it was not very common in Spanish teams.
With the senior team we played with four, but with the players I had for the Games I thought it was better to defend that way and have one more man in the center of the field to attack more. We had two men in the bands with projection, Ferrer on the right and on the left we alternated with Lasa and Berges. I was looking for more way up. The players adapted well. Luis Enrique played on the right, but went inside when Ferrer arrived. It was a way to also avoid counter-blows from the opposite … We won the gold. But they were very good. Guardiola, Solozábal, Luis Enrique, Kiko, Manjarín, who was injured at the beginning, Alfonso… Everyone, everyone. We won every game well. With remote. It is not easy not to receive a goal until the final. We played against Colombia, which was a power at the time; Italy… The Africans were strong.
“But they were very good. Guardiola, Solozábal, Luis Enrique, Kiko, Manjarín, who injured us at the beginning, Alfonso … Everyone, everyone”
Sixty players, almost 60 days of preparation. You took the Barcelona Olympic Games as the great challenge of your career.
I did what I have to do. I also traveled to Italy and with Luisito Suárez, who had been the previous coach, we were watching Inter, Milan, Juventus training sessions … I always liked being prepared, knowing things, knowing what others were doing …
From the final at the Camp Nou with 100,000 fans and full of Spanish flags, there are especially some memories.
Yes, precisely that, the support of the public. He carried us flying with his spirit. His behavior was fantastic.
A serious and responsible man like you ended up dancing last night …
That was up to the players… We had won and we were all elated. Luis Enrique and Abelardo, who were the ones who knew me the most from Asturias, were the ones who forced me to dance.
Now we only remember the Olympic gold, but you had your difficult moments as a coach. They made him suffer more than necessary.
The pressure was great and either you won or you went home, but thanks to the team working very well, the goal was achieved… Those were other times. It went well and that's where it was all over. The best thing now, after so many years, is to keep the gold and forget about everything else. They were very exciting moments.
It was not, nor is it, the usual thing, but In the absence of unanimity as to who should be the replacement for Luis Suárez in the national team, the Spanish federation of the time (May-1991) elected the new coach by secret ballot. Discarded Luis Aragonés and Javier Irureta, the two candidates, were Vicente Miera, who knew the house perfectly because he had been the right hand of Miguel Muñoz years before and Javier Clemente, the favorite of President Ángel Villar. 19 managers voted and although the count was not made public, Miera prevailed with some clarity.
He signed until December 30, 1992, so among his obligations was to direct the Olympic team at the Barcelona Games., a task to which he dedicated himself body and soul, among other reasons because a couple of months before the Games were held, the Federation had already appointed his replacement for the senior team: Javier Clemente. The same one he had defeated in the vote a year earlier.
Once the selection was out of Euro 92, Miera's life was made impossible in her own home. The appointment of his successor in full Olympic preparation was just the last public demonstration that they no longer had confidence in him and President Villar was in favor of Clemente taking charge of the selection of the Games, without daring to do so because of how unpopular it would have been to adopt a decision like that. Even so, the Basque coach visited the team in the concentration on a couple of occasions and despite the rumors that arose at that time, he had no interference in the management of the group other than wishing them good luck. That gold was solely and exclusively for Vicente Miera, his assistants and his players…