In Chiclana, a ten minute walk from the gym where he teaches classes – without giving up his coaching career – and another ten by car from the beach. So he lives Moses Arteaga (Cadiz, 06-01-1969), protagonist of some of the most brilliant years of the Spanish. Not in vain, as captain he raised the Copa del Rey 2000. But before that, he also participated in another meeting for history, the so-called ‘party of exile’, in which the perico team certified against the Oviedo a fourth position and its access to UEFA Cup playing at home in the Nova Creu Alta, the place where they also returned with the Intertoto Cup and to whom they return this weekend to visit the Sabadell, against which they have not been officially measured since 1990.
That engagement had its crumb, which was held there as a result of the closing of Sarrià after the referee Juan Manuel Brito Arceo received the impact of a tangerine, and that had to be suspended in the first instance by a huge waterspout. Finally, on May 8, 1996, and with two goals from Jordi Lardin, plus those of Ismael urzaiz, Boran bogdanovic Y Victor Manuel Torres Mestre (5-0), euphoria was unleashed among a parakeet squad that, with Jose Antonio Camacho in front, it passed in just three years from the well of Second to Europe.
We are talking about that Espanyol-Oviedo in Nova Creu Alta, but the origin is located almost three months earlier, in a match against Atlético de Madrid in Sarrià, due to a tangerine that hit the referee's thigh, Brito Arceo.
I obviously remember the suspension, but I think it was at the end of the game, so we were not aware of what happened. What I do remember perfectly is the consequences it entailed, with the exile in Sabadell and a fine for Espanyol.
What you will also remember about that Espanyol-Atleti is that López broke his cheekbone …
If true. The ball was going the other way and Juanma López, without coming to mind, elbowed me and broke my zygomatic arch. The doctor told me that I could have broken my jaw perfectly. I lie. There people were heated because there was no sanction, no card and not even yellow, and I suppose that in that increasingly fiery environment the tangerine would come later.
The amazing thing about that clash against the colchoneros is that it was Espanyol's first defeat in Sarrià in 16 months and that you reached Matchday 27 with options to be champions, as is.
I think it is the best year we have had. The team was going like a motorcycle. The good thing when you get on top is that the other teams end up gaining respect for you, that they don't come out the same on the field. That benefits you. That year everything went well, we were fighting to stay on top, it is true that in the environment there was talk of winning LaLiga, but the first objective was to go to Europe.
And they got it: to the UEFA Cup being fourth. Today that would represent playing the Champions League.
Clear. Today it would have been like that, but then only the first one was going. Anyway, for us going to UEFA was like going to the Champions League, especially knowing that Espanyol hadn't come back after Leverkusen. We really wanted him.
The day it was mathematically certified was at Espanyol-Oviedo played no less than at Nova Creu Alta.
I have in my mind Torres Mestre's free-kick goal. I put it on. With so many fouls on the team, he normally didn't do it, but he told me 'put it on, I'm going to plug it in'. It was confirming the game we had played, the victory, it was all very nice.
And the environment? Because the poster of the ‘party in exile’ was put on it.
It was a really very atypical match, because in Sabadell we were achieving something very important, I am telling you, our Champions League, but it seemed as if it were a Catalunya Cup match. Something decaf. It was not the same as if we had qualified for Europe in Sarrià, but at the same time it was more historic.
The public, also the players, ended up chanting the name of Fernando Lara.
That previous summer he had passed away, being the 'alma mater' of the club, because he was the one who pushed the sporting issue forward, who signed Camacho and brought us Pochettino, Iotov, me … He was the figure that had led Espanyol to Where was it. That is why everyone's dedication was for him.
Ticket for the first attempt of that Espanyol-Oviedo match in Nova Creu Alta, on April 28, 1996, which was suspended due to a waterspout and is now being sold on a collector's website.
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You arrived at Espanyol with Camacho, with the team just relegated, and in less than three years they finished fourth in the First Division. Any parallels with what is now?
Yes, and in the second season we were at the gates of Europe, for a goal with Sevilla. The fact is that they are different times. Now Espanyol is the club with the highest budget in the Second Division, with a project that has nothing to do with that of that time. Yes in players, because when I arrived in 1993 we did have a very good team, with Francisco, the Russians, Fonseca … It was a restructuring of the squad, because we had to release the coffers of very important contracts.
It does not differ so much from today …
At the sporting level, it was a powerful team then, but economically now Espanyol is much more healthy to make a promotion project. This year it will be the cock of the category, in our time there were several candidates and we did not stand out until the second round. Now it has power, we were in debt and the logical thing is that we would have fared badly.
So, do you see the promotion more or less affordable?
There is a lot of competitiveness and many former First class members. It will depend on the adaptation of the players, that they know they are in Second and change the chip. There is no other. Being the bantam team, with high salaries, can give the players a perspective that they will be left over, but it is not like that because the Second is very difficult. Any team surpasses you, and you win on set pieces because many rivals lock themselves behind. If the players adapt, Espanyol will not have problems due to the quality of the squad. But don't think he's sucked.
Forgive the audacity, but could the Second be more difficult now than in its time?
Totally. I saw Cádiz a lot last season for obvious reasons. And, apart from them and Huesca and Elche de our Pacheta, who went up, were Zaragoza, Tenerife, Girona, Sporting … Now there are easily six or seven teams that have a project to go up. In those days there were three.
He mentioned Cádiz, the other team of his loves. Fate is too elusive to a Espanyol-Cádiz in First, right?
Look, that's something that I already experienced in my own flesh when I played. I would not have been able to come to Espanyol if Cádiz did not go down, but the paradox was, in that season in Second Division, that I had to say goodbye to my friends in Sarrià, consummating the parakeet promotion to First and the descent of Cádiz to Second B. He got into the hole. Now it's just the opposite: Espanyol goes down and Cádiz goes up. I don't know if the same thing will happen as 26 years ago, because Espanyol has a big budget, while Cádiz has barely been strengthened, Negredo and little else, and does not have a guarantee of staying. He is condemned to suffer. The only time we have met was at the Cup crossing a couple of years ago. We will see what happens in this exciting season.