Away from the media spotlight since it was destitute as coach of the Barcelona in january 2020, it is another focus, that of the photographic camera, the one that returns to the foreground to Ernesto
Valverde (Viandar de la Vera, 1964). The former Barça coach premiered yesterday at the culture and football festival ‘Korner', Organized by the Real, ‘Beste village / The other side’, a exposition with Photographs his with the fans as protagonists and that reveals the great passion of Valverde by photography. The filmmaker David
Trueba accompanied him in the talk that opened the exhibition.
The coach clarified yesterday that for him photography “is not a hobby” since when he signed as a player for Espanyol in 1986 he prepared to be a photographer by taking a two-year course at the Institut d'Estudis Fotogràfics de Catalunya. “I thought I would dedicate myself to photography but I ended up being a coach.”
Hung up
the
boots makes 24 years At Mallorca and in the almost two decades that he has been a coach, it can be said that he has become a photographer on the bench. “I move with small, compact cameras and take black and white photos,” explains a Valverde that he always carries the camera with him, which has allowed him to gather this collection of photographs of the fans from his subjective perspective. There are no players or members of the staff, not even photos of the dressing room, “a private area that does not interest me”, only fans seen with the eyes of Valverde: from the coach, at an airport, on a bench. “When we traveled with Messi or Neymar we looked like Beatles”, Recalled the coach who, however, lived the greatest passion in his two stages training Olympiacos. “I immediately realized that it was convenient to win because the Greek fans are incredible when you win but if you don't, it gets complicated. In a derby we beat AEK 6-0 and the fans prevented the players from picking up their cars for a week ”.
The photo of the Cup final
In the Cup final Real–AthleticObviously, “the best photo is the one who won the trophy, the Real, who were happier” and on some occasion, as a Barça coach, it crossed his mind to immortalize the moment on his own lawn after winning a title “But it is difficult” because on the bench he is focused on what he is.
To make this exhibition he had to leave photos out and Valverde admitted that “it is like making an alignment or a call, hard because almost everyone can play” and although he admitted that “scoring a goal is something extraordinary, a kind of relief”, the moment in which he downloads the card with the photographs to “review the work is wonderful”.
While waiting to find a new team, the technician prepares a second photo book, 'Border', In which Bernardo collaborates Atxaga, in which he will go back to delve into that idea that interests him so much about that thin line that separates that “we are here but that we could be on the other side”. As in soccer, which “is a life lesson because everything that happens in a week in a team happens in a year in a normal company.