What happened to Oleguer? The footballer who did get into politics

“We want athletes who dedicate themselves to the practice of their profession. If we wanted people to talk about politics, we would surely choose to sponsor a politician”, This is how Benjamín Clarí, then CEO of Kelme, justified that the brand rescinded the sponsorship contract it had with the footballer Oleguer Presas (Sabadell, 02/02/1980) after the Sabadell player published in the Catalan weekly The Direct and Berria the article 'Fede Ona' —'Good faith 'in Spanish—, in which questioned the rule of law in Spain due to the situation of the ETA prisoner on hunger strike Iñaki de Juana Chaos. And it is that on February 7, 2007 such a stir was created that even Joan Laporta, president of Barça, had to publicly reprimand Presas: “We believe that he made a mistake, but at the same time I say that he should not be criminalized.”

The then top Barça leader also spoiled the footballer who used the club's “facilities” to address the matter in an appearance at the Camp Nou. Oleguer answered questions from the press on the eve of the publication of that article. “I wanted to use the case of De Juana Chaos to make a criticism of the so-called rule of law and to question the true independence of the judiciary and political power “explained the Catalan defender, who described his writing as a “reflective” article. That afternoon, Presas made clear what he would confirm on many other occasions: “I always do things because I feel good doing it and I am clear about the repercussion that I have; I'm not going to change just for being here. “

Before that, the Barça footballer had already positioned himself on other issues that created controversy, such as the nor to the European Constitution or the vindication of the Catalan sports teams, and it had even been the center of attention in the concentration of Spain in December 2005. Oleguer responded to the call of Luis Aragonés amid the rumors about his resignation and just after the attempt by Esquerra Republicana per Catalunya to modify the Sports law so that the National Team was attended on a voluntary and not compulsory basis. What happened next is already the history of Spanish football and a player who, years later, was on the Crida per Sabadell and CUP lists.

Oleguer, from UDA Gramanet to start in a Champions final

Oleguer Presas was born 40 years ago in Sabadell, Catalonia, the place where he grew up and which, like many other circumstances, marked his development as a footballer and as a person. Son of Mercé Renom, a renowned expert historian on social movements in Catalonia, whoever was a Barça footballer started playing for his city's teams: Lepanto, Sant Gabriel, and UDA Gramanet. From the Grama, with whom he came to play in Second B, he arrived at the Barça subsidiary. Oleguer was 21 when he signed for Barça B, in which he was for two and a half seasons, until he made the jump to the first team. Led by Rijkaard, the Sabadell defender debuted in an official match on January 12, 2003, against Malaga (0-0).

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Presas was no football prodigy. He was 23 years old in his first match with the Barça team. However, his great capacity for work and intelligence to occupy spaces in defense caused him to become an important footballer for Frank Rijkaard. His participation grew little by little. Aware of his virtues and also of his limitations, he played alongside Carles Puyol in the center of the defense or as a winger, as required by the Dutch coach.

The season of his debut (2002-03), the Catalan defender ended up participating in five games. In 2003-04, he played 24 games; in 2004-05, 44 crashes; and in 2005-06, 49, the one with the most matches played in his sports career. Oleguer played 33 league games, three in the Copa del Rey, two in the Spanish Super Cup and 11 in the Champions League. In Paris, on May 17, 2006, in the fifth final of the Champions League in the history of Barça, Oleguer, that boy from Grama, started. Although it was not his best performance – and he ended up being replaced in 71 '-, the Sabadellense the second Barça European Cup was crowned and lifted. In the lap of honor, he could be seen with the red star flag, the one on the left…

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Eviction of the Bemba bar and his march to Ajax

Of course, when Oleguer gave the lap of honor at the Stade de France in Paris, in 2006, the footballer had already been politically significant on several occasions. On September 27, 2003, at the beginning of the season in which he would end up being a professional with Barça, The police ordered the evacuation of the Bemba de Sabadell bar, due to the complaints of noise from the neighbors. The place, frequented by left-wing activists, celebrated its closure because the rental contract was not renewed and the night ended with 20 injured and 11 youths spending the night in the dungeon. Among them, Oleguer. The people affected by the charges in the eviction spoke of “police brutality”, while the agents defended that a small group of young people had thrown stones and bottles at them.

After 15 years, in March 2018, both Presas and the other ten accused of attack and resistance to authority were acquitted. In the sentence, the judge was especially forceful with the then Mayor of Sabadell, the socialist Manuel Bustos, for ordering police charges from his riot squad that that same day was released with the desire to “prove” – ​​says the sentence – his operation against a group that had been publicly and repeatedly opposed to his government. In fact, Oleguer himself, during his career at Barça, charged several times against Bustos. His first goal with the Barça shirt, in April 2005 at La Rosaleda, He dedicated it to David, a 14-year-old boy from Sabadell who had been arrested for sticking stickers with anti-fascist messages against the mayor from the city. A day later, the Barça central made these statements in Catalunya Radio: “I believe that violence exists, it is fascist violence and institutional violence or tension or tension that generates the attitude of the City Council (which governed Bustos)”.

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That same year, 2005, Oleguer closed it with another of the great controversies of his career: the no to the Spanish National Team. On December 12, in front of almost a hundred media, the Sabadell defender arrived at the concentration hotel of the Spanish National Team at 11:26 am. Spain, under the orders of Luis Aragonés, celebrated a day of coexistence in Madrid with an eye on the 2006 World Cup in Germany. The then 23 Barça had participated in the campaign 'One nation, one selection' in favor of the Catalan teams Before he was called up, but the Wise Man from Hortaleza never judged him: “I have met players who have defended the shirt of three teams and nothing has happened. I will not ask for anyone's political or religious affiliation. I don't ask if they are independentists or anything. I just don't ask. In the Federation, there are some player cards that can be selected and I summon “.

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The call of Aragonés, however, was not repeated. Oleguer did not attend the World Cup and never got to wear the Spain jersey. Already in 2007, after the publication of the article on ETA De Juana Chaos, the situation of the Sabadell in Spanish football became “unbreathable” —That's how Quique Peinado tells it in his book Left Footballers-, and finally, in 2008, after four good seasons in the Barça first team, Dam signs for Ajax. In the Amsterdam team he plays three seasons, playing 38, 14 and 9 games, respectively. In 2011, at only 31 years old, he hung up his boots.

Before that, the Catalan player had already written the book Camí d’Ítaca (2006), together with his friend and poet Roc Casagran, presented to the Catalan press at the social center squatted Can vies, in the Sants neighborhood; and had participated in The Homeland of the Goal (2007), by Daniel Gómez Amat, in which he also talked about football and politics. “I am fully aware of where I am getting into when doing things. I get 'wet' because I want to and because I think that's what I have to do and say, because I'm like that and I have these ideas “he stated in the book.

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The no to Spain and the Oleguer most involved

One year after putting an end to his football career, Oleguer, as committed to his ideas as ever, is on the CUP list in the elections to the Generalitat in 2012. He did it symbolically, in last position, But the former Barça defender made an active campaign for this match. In an interview in Digital was born avoid talking about football, but in Rac1, in the program The Mon, yes he does and finally tells what was an open secret: he said no to the Spanish team. “I explained to Luis (Aragonese) that I believed that if there is not enough involvement or feeling, it is better that other people go. I refused to play, I am not aware of how the talk was. I don't remember the details, I was nervous, “explained the Sabadell. Later, in 2018, during an interview in Panenka magazine, he was more forceful:” In football I have always tried to be committed and give 100%, and not I felt with this commitment for a national team that does not represent me in any way. On the contrary, that it generates rejection and aversion for what it represents“.

Also in 2015 Oleguer joined the lists of another political formation, in that case Crida per Sabadell (formed by Entesa per Sabadell, CUP and Moviment Popular de Sabadell). It was number 23, the number he wore during his time at Barça.

Degree in Economics from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, ​​Presas he has never put aside his ideas or his city and has continued to be involved in the social life of Sabadell. “I am in politics from the base, where I have always liked to be. To improve the conditions of the people with the convictions that I have, from the daily work,” he explained in an interview in Catalunya Radio just a year ago. In addition, he has been seen support the boycott of Puma promoted by Palestinian athletes and supported by others of different nationalities due to the brand's sponsorship of the IFA (Israel Football Association). “The global manufacturer of sportswear is involved in violations of international law and human rights. Puma is the main sponsor of the IFA, which includes teams in illegal Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory,” reads the statement from the group of athletes.

And, of course, Oleguer has not left aside the soccer: mixed, self-managed and popular initiative. This is one of the last sports projects in which Oleguer has been involved. In 2019, the former Barça defender was a coach of a group of boys and girls in the old Sabadell Civil Guard barracks, then squatted by the collective 'Volem la Caserna' ('We want the barracks'). “The intention is not to create footballers, but people. We want to lead them so that they learn and that they themselves, in the face of challenges, evolve and train”, Presas told Nació Digital.

This is life after hanging up the boots of Oleguer Presas, a player whose career was marked by a phrase that he himself recounted in The Homeland of the Goal, and is that “The Oleguer footballer cannot be separated from Oleguer as a social being.”