Five years of emptiness in the heart of Linares

Each July 8, Linares remembers with nostalgia the loss of his 'eternal captain'. Francisco José Pardo Garrido, better known as Fran Carles, was and is an emblem for the city of Jaén. That July 8, 2016, the most tragic news was known. Fran Carles, A midfielder raised in the lower categories of the team and a Linares Deportivo player in Second Division B, he died at the age of 26 due to a stroke in the kidneys caused by breaking a thigh muscle with a weight. His death left a void in the hearts of a team, a hobby and a city that will always remember him.

Carles, was the lighthouse that guided the team. His position as a midfielder and his leadership skills as captain was a benchmark for the club. Since his death until today, every 8 minute of the game the Municipal Stadium of Linarejos pays tribute in his honor with an ovation in unison of applause and emotion. Nothing has been the same since Fran Carles said goodbye. And it is that fate is so capricious that he wanted the number 8 of Linares to be remembered every July 8.

He played around 300 games with the elastic azulilla and scored more than 70 goals. A few legend numbers for a legend player. Fran Carles lived all this during a decade of legacy with the first team. He understood football like nobody else and that's how he saw it Manuel Tomé, the coach who gave him the opportunity to succeed when he was just 17 years old.

The return to Second B

In 2009, the then-called CD Linares disappeared. After its re-founding that same year, the club made up of players of the stature of Javi Quesada, José Corpas or Óscar Benito, that ship that seemed sunk re-floated to return the illusion to the city. Among them was Carles, a player who would become a fundamental pillar to return, from the provincial categories and in a record time of 7 seasons, to the bronze category of Spanish football. Fran paved the way for that promotion play-off in Linarejos against Castellón. Later, the azulillos would win in the second leg in Castalia, thus consuming the return to 2ªB.

Family and Club Captain

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His father, Ignacio Pardo Venteo, was another myth of the azulillo group who also died in August 2008 at the age of 49. The memory of his football and his passion for the club remains, something that he instilled in the values ​​of his son Fran Carles.

In 2016 he was awarded the honor of wearing the captain's armband. Given the dedication he had for the club and his extensive career, Fran Carles was not one more. That summer, he died on the Costa del Sol while on vacation. The news fell like a jug of cold water on the city, which had barely had time to celebrate the rise. The story of a new death in Carles's family was repeated. Father and son became part of the club's history and their legacy will remain alive in the memory of Linarejos.

Captain of example and of the Azulilla family, the midfielder of the eternal 8 behind him, he left a great void in Linares. 'Eternal captain' in the hearts of Linars and soccer fans. Many players made the sport an art on the field and inspired other artists to be immortalized in stone or bronze. Daniel Jarque, Kubala, Bobby Charlton … They are some of the footballers whose legends will be represented forever in statues in the fields where they triumphed. Fran Carles also has his own in the Plaza del Municipal de Linarejos, next to the door through which he entered every morning to train with the team of his heart.