Football & the Written Word

The Athletic Club Fundazioa Foundation and the Provincial Government’s Library are presenting a series of round table meetings and conferences entitled “Football and the Written Word”. During which, several writers and Athletic Club players will talk about the relation between football and the written word, with regards to both literary creation and essays.
These sessions are to be held on 7, 14 and 26 October at 19:00 hours in the Public Library (C/ Diputación 7, Bilbao) and where writers such as Sergi Pàmies, Miguel González San Martín, David Trueba and Juan Villoro will be, alongside FC Barcelona’s current technical director, Andoni Zubizarreta and Athletic Club players Carlos Gurpegi and Andoni Iraola.
The event will start on Thursday, 7 October, with a round table meeting entitled “Football and literature: expressing the ball” in which the relation between football and narrative works will be debated. About why there isn’t a “great novel” based on football yet, or on how the game matches up to its descriptions, or the nature of the metaphors used to define the game, etcetera, are the themes in question. Sergi Pàmies, Miguel González San Martín and Carlos Gurpegi will be at this round table meeting.
On 14 October the second round table meeting will take place and is entitled “Football and research: think about the ball”, that deals with the subject of how the football world is reflected in the written form, from a column in the newspaper to sociological studies. At this meeting David Trueba, Andoni Zubizarreta and Andoni Iraola will be present.
Finally, on 26 October, Tuesday, the event will call to a halt with a brilliant conference to be given by the renown Mexican writer Juan Villoro and entitled “The ball and the mind: football a cultural phenomenon”, Villoro will analyze the phenomenon that is football from a cultural perspective.
Both the round table meetings and the conference commence at 19:00 and are open to the public free of charge (remember to enter the library your ID card is required).

The “Football and the Written Word” series is part of a conjunction of activities of a cultural nature to do with sport and football that the Athletic Club Foundation organizes every year. Events like these all have a common thread which is to try to promote the culture of our society by attracting the habitual sports spectators to cultural activities of a football and sporting nature, which maintain the quality of its contents, and are attractive and educational for them. In this way, the aim is to bring the fans closer to the world of cultural reflection, showing them the different ways that our passion for football can be experienced, as well as giving them the opportunity to reflect on Athletic Club’s cultural, sentimental and social dimensions.

In this context, this year, 2010, the following events have been conducted, for example, the Athletic Club Photo and Composition Contest and a series of conferences “Art, football and society” that were held last May in the Sala Rekalde (Hall) of Bilbao.

Participant’s Biographies:
Sergi Pàmies (Paris, 1960) Catalan writer, son of the writer Teresa Pàmies and Politician Gregorio López Raimundo. Born in Paris due to his parents’ exile during the dictatorship, and where he learnt French, a language which he can masterfully translate nowadays. Becoming known in 1986 because of his short-story book “Debería caérsete la cara de vergüenza” (You should be ashamed of yourself), followed by several more, both novels and story books, including the award winning one of “Si te comes un limón sin hacer muecas” (If you eat a lemon without pulling a face) (2006) and his last book entitled “La bicicleta estática” (The Exercise Bicycle) (2010); a habitual collaborator in diverse forms of media in Catalonia. He usually publishes texts on football for La Vanguardia (newspaper), where he keeps up with the news surrounding FC Barcelona, as he is a big fan of theirs.
Miguel González San Martín (Muskiz, 1953) Biscayan writer, has published a story book “El tranvía aéreo” (The aerial tram) and the novels “Hotel Ucrania” and “Dos entradas para Wembley” (Two tickets for Wembley). In this last novel, he narrates the story of an Athletic Club ex player; González San Martín delves into the relation between football, memories and childhood. He is also a collaborator at El Correo (newspaper), where he publishes weekly his relevant views concerning Athletic Club.

David Trueba (Madrid, 1969) A versatile creator, has worked for the press, radio and on television, where he co-directed “El peor programa de la semana” (The worst programme of the week). He’s been a screenwriter for films such as “Amo tu cama rica” (Spanish edition), “Los peores años de nuestra vida” (The worst years of our lives), “Two Much” or “La niña de tus ojos” (The girl of your dreams). And has directed, films, among others, such as “La buena vida” (The Good Life), “Obra maestra” (Masterpiece) or “Soldados de Salamina” (Soldiers of Salamina). He is also the author of the novels, “Abierto toda la noche” (Open All Night), “Cuatro amigos” (Four Friends) and “Saber Perder” (Learning to lose). The latter, in which football is of vital importance, via one of its characters, Ariel, who is an Argentinean player. He currently collaborates with El País (newspaper), where he routinely writes about football.
Andoni Zubizarreta (Gasteiz, 1961) A former Athletic Club player, with whom Athletic won two League championships and a King’s Cup. He went to play for FC Barcelona in 1986, where his sporting career continued, accumulating among other things, the European Cup (1992) and a record for being the all time most capped player for the Spanish team, i.e. 126 appearances. Following his retirement from football he was Athletic Club’s Technical Director of Sports from 2001 to 2004 and is currently the Technical director at FC Barcelona. In his facet as a writer and sports commentator, he has worked on TV, Radio and for the press for example at TVE or El País. In 2008 he published an extensive autobiographical story entitled “Una vida entre tres palos y tres líneas” (A life between three posts and three lines) gathered in the book “Cultura(s) del fútbol” ((Football Culture(s)).
Juan Villoro (México DF, 1956) is one of the most important Hispano-American writers today. His works cover, novels, short-stories, essays, travelling diaries, chronicles, press articles and children’s books. He has published such novels as “Materia dispuesta” (Spanish edition), “El disparo de Argón” (The Shot of Argon) or the fabulous “El testigo” (The Witness), the latter having won the Herralde Prize in 2004. Among his short stories, the following stand out “La casa pierde” (House loses) or “Los culpables” (The Guilty Ones), and among some of his children’s books the following “El profesor Zíper y la fabulosa guitarra eléctrica” (Professor Ziper and the fabulous electric guitar) or “El libro salvaje” (The Wild Book). He is currently a literature professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and an invited speaker at Yale, Boston and Pompeu i Fabra de Barcelona Universities. He customarily collaborates with newspapers like La Jornada (Mexico), El País and El Periódico and in publications such as Letras Libres, Proceso, Nexos and Reforma, which are usually on football related issues. Some of his best football articles were collected in the volume “Dios es redondo” (God is round), published by Anagrama in 2006.