Additional reporting: Guillermo Rai
As soon as you open the red wooden door into Girona’s dressing room at the Montilivi stadium, you are drawn to something unusual: a table football set.
It is old, with ashtrays on every corner that speak to a different era. It has become cracked with time and some paint has fallen off. Players still use it on matchdays; among all the features of the modern dressing room, it remains untouched.
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It has been at the heart of Girona’s dressing room since 2007 and underlines why La Liga’s surprise leaders are different — they sit two points above second-placed Real Madrid and four above their Catalan neighbours, Barcelona.
In the 2000s, Girona players and those who were running the club would meet in the centre of town at Bar Pencil. It became the perfect place for a few drinks during long afternoons — with most of the chat taking place around a table football set.
“They had one table set in the dressing room as well and played a lot, but it was in 2009 when the club decided to fire the manager, Raul Agne,” Pedro, the owner of Bar Pencil, says. “The players told us Agne had to take the table football as it was from a friend and he needed to return it.
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“Players were not happy, so they came and asked if they could take ours. I remember they even paid us a sort of rent fee, a symbolic thing. You can’t imagine how tough it was to move that table set into the old-school facilities of Montilivi.”
Back in 2007, Girona were struggling to survive and pay their players. On the pitch, though, a united dressing room was on course for two successive promotions from the fourth to the second division, which would help them return to Spanish professional football for the first time in 49 years.
Sixteen years later, things look very different. After joining the City Football Group (CFG) in 2017, they have progressed into a new financial dimension and become this season’s surprise package. A picturesque city — where Game of Thrones was filmed and where basketball was once the most popular sport — has become a football hotbed. But it all started with table football — so much so that the club have installed another set at their training ground.
“Table football reminds us where we come from,” president Delfi Geli says. “The club we’ve always been and what we’ve needed to overcome. Players turned table football into their tradition at a time when they struggled to get paid due to the owners’ financial struggles. Girona will always have that printed in their identity.”
This is the inside story of Girona’s rise to the top, propelled by their link to CFG, Pep Guardiola’s brother (and Girona chairman) Pere, and an inspirational coach-sporting director pair of Michel and Quique Carcel. In this piece, The Athletic will explore…
- Girona’s rise from playing fifth-tier football in 1999 and attracting just 200 fans
- CFG’s takeover and concerns fans had about the potential for a name change
- The regular trips Girona’s hierarchy makes to Manchester and how they have tapped into CFG’s scouting network to find gems, such as breakout star Savio
- Michel, the manager who endeared himself to fans by learning Catalan from his elderly neighbours
- Carcel, the sporting director who has rebuilt Girona each summer
- And Pere Guardiola, Pep’s brother, who has been there from the start of the journey
Humble origins
“If you look through its history, Girona has mainly been from the fourth and third tier,” Geli tells The Athletic. “We even got relegated to lower and more local leagues.”
Girona were playing fifth-division football in 1999 and as recently as 2006-07, they were in Tercera Division — which back then referred to the fourth tier, a category that meant they only faced fellow teams from Catalonia. They were promoted to the Segunda B, the third tier, in 2007 and returned to the Segunda Division a year later to end a near-50-year absence from professional football.
Residents have not forgotten their humble beginnings. Located 60 miles to the north east of Barcelona and a proud Catalan city of 100,000 inhabitants, Girona has always had plenty of attractions for tourists — but sport was never one of them.
The Costa Brava, where some of Spain’s most impressive beaches are found, is 25 minutes by car. Further north, France is less than an hour’s drive. The city is known for its unique hanging houses by the Onyar river and its stunning Jewish quarter, which gained even more prominence in 2015 when it was used as one of the main sets for Game of Thrones. The football team barely registered.
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“Girona citizens were mainly Barcelona, Real Madrid or even Espanyol fans,” Geli says. “This was our reality and the closest we could get to the elite. The city once had a basketball team in the national top flight, but football… you had to look elsewhere.”
Born in Girona and formed in the youth ranks, Geli joined La Masia, Barcelona’s academy, and was room-mates with Pep Guardiola. He played as a right-back for clubs including Atletico Madrid and Deportivo Alaves before returning to take charge of his boyhood team in 2015.
“I’ve seen football games at Montilivi with 200 people in the stands,” he says. “I can remember the days when fans were seated on the half of the main stand where Girona was attacking, to then switch to the other side after the break.
“Now this is a whole different story. The streets are full of kids wearing our kits — they only support Girona. That was unthinkable when I was young.”
Girona’s return to Segunda Division in 2008 marked a turning point. According to Ivan Quiros, the founder of the official fan club, Penya Jandrista, named after former player Jandro, that was the moment “football fever” started to take hold.
“I still can remember the footballers celebrating the promotion driving their cars through the streets of Girona with the klaxon and all the fans following them — it looked more like a wedding,” Quiros says.
But money problems were never too far away. Just as the team were establishing themselves in the second division in 2013, they entered insolvency proceedings after building up a reported €2.3million ($2.5m; £2m) debt with the Spanish tax authorities and another €800,000 with public health services. Local businessman Josep Delgado and the club’s ownership could not afford the costs and were struggling to pay wages. It seemed as if a sale to a wealthier investor was the only way out.
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After six months of negotiations with Argentinian lawyer Ricardo Pini, Delgado sold him an 80 per cent stake in Girona for €2million in 2015. The agreement was reported in local media and Pini even attended several games with the expectation he would take charge, but the deal collapsed in February of that year, with Girona stating that the new investors had missed several deadlines on payments to complete the sale, meaning the contract they had signed was invalidated. Pini is now involved with the ownership of former La Liga side Elche.
That is when Pere Guardiola, the brother of Pep, arrived. He acted as a mediator between Girona and TVSE Futbol — a French group formed by investors Louis Dutaret and Samir Boudjemaa that met the Catalan club’s asking price. Reports in the local press said the new investors had to contribute an extra €600,000 as well as the €2m price for Girona to help them out of insolvency — with €380,000 required to cover short-term costs, such as players’ salaries.
That was when Girona’s transformation began. TVSE Futbol was practically unknown in the city, with Dutaret and Boudjemaa rarely appearing in public. Instead, it was Pere who was more present and involved with the executive decisions. Guardiola was the one who appointed Geli as president and some of the senior directors, such as Ignasi Mas-Baga, who still remain.
Girona lost out on promotion to La Liga via the play-offs three times in four years (2013, 2015, 2016), but things were looking up. Finally, in 2017, under manager Pablo Machin, they finished second to reach the top flight for the first time. Machin left Girona in 2018 and is unemployed but is regularly seen in their executive box and has a supporters’ group named after him.
That led to Girona finally announcing a full CFG takeover in August 2017, with the group buying all of TVSE Futbol’s shares. The last change of roles in the ownership came in 2020 when Pere sold 35 per cent of CFG’s shares to Bolivian businessman Marcelo Claure, who is the owner of Club Bolivar — another team under City’s umbrella group.
Girona suffered relegation from La Liga in 2019, but by then their fanbase was established.
“This was also a crucial part of the idea Pere exposed to me back in the day,” Geli says. “We needed to awaken everyone who lived close to Girona — and not only fans but also the institutions and powerful personalities we had. The club needed to be another reason to be proud of belonging to Girona.”
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That involved setting up an advisory council featuring some of the region’s most prominent figures. One of those is Joan Roca, one of three brothers — along with Josep and Jordi — born and raised in Girona who are among Europe’s most celebrated chefs.
Their restaurant El Celler de Can Roca was ranked among the world’s top three restaurants from 2011 to 2018 and boasts three Michelin stars. They own four other establishments in Girona (the Bar Can Roca, Normal, Casa Cacao and Rocambolesc) and another called Mas Marroch in the nearby town of Vilablareix.
“We can’t watch all the games as we have to work on Saturdays, so the only option we have is to turn on the radio or set up some hidden tablet device in the kitchen — but this Girona team has been a revelation,” Josep, regarded as the best sommelier in Europe, tells The Athletic.
“A couple of weeks ago, we were present at the Gastronomic Forum in Barcelona. What we didn’t expect was to receive visits from fans and colleagues with Girona jerseys (who) wanted us to sign them.”
Mas Marroch has even become a secret spot for the Girona executive board to finalise some of their most important signings — it was where they celebrated Netherlands international and former Manchester United left-back Daley Blind’s arrival this summer.
The City Football Group takeover
Pere Guardiola looks back fondly on the day he became involved in June 2015.
“Our main mission when we took over was to make a stable fanbase buy into our project and turn it into a viable institution,” Guardiola tells The Athletic. “Football clubs are easy to buy, but it’s way tougher to maintain and make them sustainable.”
According to Geli, CFG guaranteed Girona a “solid and bright future” after years of ownership problems. Those who were close to the deal do not remember concerns about the sale to the multi-club group.
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“There wasn’t any controversy or big debates against the takeover,” fan group founder Quiros says. “If (there was) something, maybe a small group of fans were a bit wary of a potential change in the name of the club to end up being ‘Girona City’ or similar.
“People had seen the example of Red Bull, where clubs completely changed their names, colours, badge… everything.
“But there’s not been any major change with Girona because most of the senior executives the City Football Group have managing the club are people from here and know what Girona is and means.”
Girona did change their badge in 2021. The crest was made rounder to resemble the CFG style adopted by their other teams and the crown on top of the badge — a symbol of the city — was scrapped. Parts of the fanbase were happy with the change as they wrongly associated the crown with the Spanish monarchy, but Girona had conducted a public consultation on the badge and found that it had been the worst-rated element by fans. Quiros says it was not “a great issue” for fans.
The links to CFG are a big part of the Girona story, but they have not always worked the same way. When the connection first started in 2015, the Catalans were supposed to be a satellite club for City — a place that would welcome promising young players from English sides for their development. Spanish-born full-back Pablo Maffeo, now at Real Mallorca and recently called up for Argentina, was the first City player to join Girona on loan seven years ago.
Knowing it would be difficult to convince top players to join a side who were in the second division, Girona and CFG took a different approach to recruitment. They went for more experienced players who Girona could not afford but were signed by City and then loaned to them. These included Florian Lejeune, Ruben Sobrino and Pablo Mari — players who were unlikely to play for City but who could provide an instant upgrade.
Girona still had a bottom-half second-division budget when they were first promoted in 2017, but CFG taking a more active role allowed them to attract a higher calibre of players. Take Douglas Luiz, who the group signed for City from Vasco da Gama for €12million in 2017 before sending him on loan to Girona for the next two years. Luiz has since become one of the Premier League’s leading midfielders since joining Aston Villa in 2019.
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Not everything has been so simple, with some City youngsters turning down the Girona route. Brahim Diaz, the winger senior City executives suggested should join Girona in search of game time in 2018, rejected the proposal, decided to stay in Manchester and eventually left for Real Madrid the following winter for €15million.
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CFG’s strategy for Girona was put in jeopardy in 2018-19 when the club was relegated from La Liga after suffering nine losses in their last 10 games. The difference in TV revenues between the top flight and the second division is particularly pronounced in Spain; Girona failed to win promotion back to La Liga in the next two seasons (losing two play-off finals), which is when their sporting director, Carcel, realised they needed a change.
“In terms of budget, it was tough because the budget was going down and it was getting harder and harder to fight for promotion,” he tells The Athletic. “That’s when we changed the whole philosophy. We started to make room for younger players with lower salaries and we signed Michel as a manager.”
Carcel pays multiple visits to Manchester each year. He has a close relationship with City’s director of football, Txiki Begiristain. The Girona hierarchy started making those trips in 2015, as their relationship evolved from meetings among directors and coaching staff to sharing knowledge. Girona have since spent five pre-season campaigns using City’s facilities.
“Synergies with City were created on a sporting level,” Carcel says. “But on an administrative, marketing, image and facilities level, Girona is taking a big lead because of the owners.”
For Pere Guardiola, Girona’s success stems from CFG’s long-term approach.
“The important thing from a business angle is to think on how we would act if one day we don’t win that many games,” he says. “How the club will work to make sure Girona is not just a one-season wonder.
“This means knowing that patience will be needed again and staying forward-thinking.”
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That behind-the-scenes work has allowed the Catalans to assemble the talented squad that has taken them to the top of La Liga.
Viktor Tsygankov, the 26-year-old winger, is the clearest example. He was signed in January for €5million after starring with Dynamo Kyiv in the Ukrainian Premier League. Girona had to fight off competition from PSV Eindhoven to sign Tsygankov, who said one of the main reasons he chose the La Liga side was Pere Guardiola, who also works for the player’s agency, SEG. He has scored two goals and provided two assists in 11 La Liga appearances this season.
Artem Dovbyk, Girona’s record signing at €7.5million from Dnipro this summer, caught sporting director Carcel’s eye after scoring 24 goals in 30 games last season. Having a Ukraine international team-mate in Tsygankov helped convince him to move there. He is the team’s top scorer with seven goals in 13 appearances.
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“We obviously have the capacity to scout those kinds of markets because we are under the City umbrella,” Carcel says.
“In those two cases (Tsygankov and Dovbyk), I can tell you it was not easy. Both were Ukrainian internationals, so we had to make a bold move. That’s the great advantage of being close to CFG, who support us and are brave when it comes to making calls.”
The best example of CFG’s scouting nous is the 19-year-old winger Savio — more commonly known as Savinho — who has been La Liga’s breakout star this season. Signed by CFG sister club Troyes in France’s Ligue 2 from Brazilian side Atletico Mineiro for around €7million in 2022, he never featured for the French side and was sent straight on loan to PSV for the 2022-23 season.
“We had known Savinho for a couple of years,” Carcel says. “We travelled to South America and spotted him playing for Brazil in international competitions.
“City Football Group decided to proceed with his signing, something we were really excited about. But last season he suffered an early injury with PSV Eindhoven that stalled his progression.”
Savio was out of action for two months and played nine times for PSV’s second team when he returned. Then he travelled to South America to take part in the Under-20 World Cup with Brazil, which is where he fully convinced Carcel.
“That’s where we see a player that, for me, was just different and very decisive,” Carcel says.
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“It was very difficult to convince the coaching staff because (Savio) had barely any games in the professional world… It wasn’t easy to convince Michel, but what happens is that he trusts a lot in the club, in my opinion, in what I think — and we did it.”
After 13 La Liga games, Savio has registered eight goal involvements (four goals, four assists) and is being talked about as a Barcelona target. City chief executive Ferran Soriano did not appear too worried about those rumours in an interview with Catalan radio station RAC1 two weeks ago.
“Savinho will stay at Girona until the end of the season and I’m quite confident he’ll stay beyond that,” Soriano said. “He’s told us he’s equally happy to be at Girona.”
According to Girona dressing room sources — who, like the others cited in this article, asked to remain anonymous as they did not have permission to comment — Savio is the most natural talent Montilivi has witnessed.
“He has the potential to become the first player to make the journey the other way around: from Girona to Manchester City,” sources say.
Michel and Quique Carcel, the two pillars of Girona’s success
Michel — not to be confused with the legendary Real Madrid and Spain midfielder of the same name — was appointed Girona manager in the summer of 2021 when they were in the second tier.
But after 10 games in Segunda Division, Michel had managed two wins and Girona were 20th in the 22-team league.
Girona’s owners would not have been blamed for sacking him, but they stuck with the former Rayo Vallecano player and manager, in part thanks to a number of advanced metrics.
“Back in October 2021, we assessed Girona’s situation — but AI and all the metrics CFG had to analyse our performances advised that we should keep our faith in Michel,” City CEO Soriano said last week.
Girona and Michel have shown loyalty to each other. He arrived in Girona with a reputation as a promotion expert, having found a way to La Liga from the second tier with Rayo Vallecano and Huesca. On both occasions, he was sacked before Christmas after guiding them to the top flight.
“What you need is time,” Michel tells The Athletic. “Luckily in Girona, I have had that.
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“When I arrived at the club, they had just gone through two traumatic moments: failing to achieve promotion in the play-offs. The footballers were in a difficult emotional moment.
“Our idea of the game was much more aggressive than what Girona had been doing and that played a part. It’s much harder for a player coming from two hard knocks to have to expose (themselves) and take risks in competition. Maybe that mental process was the most difficult moment to go through with the players, but it wouldn’t have helped much if I hadn’t had time.”
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Apart from his coaching abilities, Michel has shown his human side — and the ability to adapt to the local culture and the club’s identity.
Born in the down-at-heel Vallecas district to the south east of Madrid and a Rayo legend as a player, Michel endeared himself to Girona’s fans by learning and using Catalan during press conferences in his first season.
“I did not learn Catalan to benefit myself as a populist move or to earn favours from the fans,” he says. “It was just to transmit gratitude to a club that has bet on me.
“When I saw that in the club there is a mother tongue, which is Catalan, and I realised the language is quite consolidated, (I realised) if I want to make my way among all the people and be one more and be integrated, the language would help.”
Michel moved to the city of Girona in 2021, leaving his wife and two boys in Madrid. One of them plays in Real Madrid’s academy while the other is part of Girona’s second team. He decided to base himself in the city centre to stay in touch with locals.
During his first year in Girona, he was visited by two neighbours from his block of flats, who knocked on his door to welcome him to the city. The retired couple invited the manager round on a Friday afternoon to eat ‘pa amb tomaquet’ — traditional Catalan tomato bread — and Spanish omelette. But Michel asked them to teach him Catalan, a demand he extended to Girona’s staff, who still text him in their mother tongue.
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The Friday meetings between Michel and his neighbours became a regular feature of his first year and helped him while his family were still away. Michel now has a personal teacher to keep improving his Catalan.
“Michel is a profile of a manager we had been looking for for a long time,” president Geli says. “Thanks to his approach, the club earned a reputation as a development club for young players. We provide talents a platform to develop and grow.”
That reputation helped attract Eric Garcia, the 22-year-old former City centre-back, on loan from Barcelona last summer. It led to them signing former Real Madrid academy product Miguel Gutierrez, the 22-year-old who has become a key part of Girona’s play as a left-wing back who tucks inside. He is being closely monitored by Premier League sides.
Aleix Garcia exemplifies Michel’s approach. A former City midfielder who spent two unsuccessful years on loan at Girona from 2017-2019, he fell out of the elite when he joined Romanian club Dinamo Bucharest in 2020 after his City contract ran out. But Girona brought him back on a free transfer in 2021 and last weekend the 26-year-old made his Spain debut after an impressive start to the campaign; he is the heart of Michel’s side with three goals and four assists.
Girona are the top-scoring team in La Liga with 31 goals, have won the most points away from home (19), and have won five of their 10 games by coming from behind.
“Above all, I feel proud that the fans are represented by the team and that opponents and other teams value how we are doing things — that recognition is what we have in our heads,” Michel says.
Sporting director Carcel has been key, too. He is one of the few senior executives who arrived before City’s involvement, he was appointed in 2014, but nobody at CFG had any doubts about him.
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A former La Masia player, Carcel featured for Barcelona’s C team before spending his playing career in the lower divisions with clubs including Cadiz, Leganes, Sabadell and L’Hospitalet. He first took on the role of sporting director at third-division L’Hospitalet in 2011, where Girona’s hierarchy spotted him.
Carcel’s ability to find talent and build a team around each manager is one of his strongest qualities. Part of his job is a constant rebuilding process each summer, with players and managers coming and going but the club staying successful.
“Every year I must have the ability to understand things are going to happen that you don’t want to,” Carcel tells The Athletic.
“Just take a look at last season and how many players left. Santi Bueno is now at Wolverhampton (Wanderers) because they placed a good offer. Rodrigo Riquelme, who came on loan from Atletico Madrid, is now starting at his club and is a Spain international. Striker Taty Castellanos (on loan from CFG club New York City) was sold to Lazio, then we bumped into the situation with Oriol Romeu (the midfielder was sold to Barcelona).
“It’s always tough to retain everyone, but at the same time the departures allowed us to keep goalkeeper (Paulo) Gazzaniga and sign midfielders Yangel Herrera and Ivan Martin, who were key to the manager.”
Girona have secured Carcel’s future: two months ago, he signed a two-year extension until 2027. They also tied Michel down to a new deal until 2026. Plenty of Girona fans think Michel could occupy the top seat in the CFG project by replacing Pep Guardiola at City when the Catalan finally leaves. Michel laughs.
“I have heard the rumour, yes, but it is exaggerated,” he says. “It’s a noise that we can’t stop and obviously we are in a happy moment, but there’s not more than that.”
“For now, we are living in a dream and the thing we want the most is for it to continue.”
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So, could Girona win La Liga? Opta give them a 1.2 per cent chance of holding on to top spot and say they are most likely to finish fourth (with a 36.1 per cent probability).
Even so, Girona are just the fourth team after Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid to have won 11 of their opening 13 games in La Liga. And, as Soriano said in his interview with RAC1: “If in March, Girona are in the same situation we are now, we will try — and want — to win La Liga.”
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Still, those at the Catalan side would prefer not to hear about title talk, particularly given the target at the start of the season was staying up. Club sources said Girona were already looking at how to upgrade Montilivi with a view to hosting European football next season.
But Pere Guardiola is clear when asked whether the side he has been involved with for eight years can go all the way.
“We need to live all this day by day,” he says. “Having fun and being proud, without worrying too much about the future.
“Football is the toss of a coin. There can be injuries, there are a lot of matches remaining… Don’t think further. Let’s think Savinho will stay for years, Tsygankov will, too, Dovbyk can keep scoring goals and let’s see if we can make another deal in January to improve the team.”
(Top photos: Getty Images, Pol Ballus; design: Eamonn Dalton)