Sant Andreu: Emblems — Terrace Edition

Words: Gorka Urresola

Images: Gorka Urresola

The district of Sant Andreu has been part of the city of Barcelona since 1897. But for its people, it has never ceased to be the town.

And this sentiment is represented in a very special club.

Camouflaged among the characteristic blocks of flats that fill with life the thousand-year-old neighbourhood of Sant Andreu de Palomar, annexed to Barcelona around 1897, the Narcís Sala is revealed as a modest stadium but with a special aura.

It has a life of its own.

Sergi, a 22-year-old fan of the quadribarrat club, is waiting for us there.

©Gorka Urresola/ Terrace Edition. Unió Esportiva Sant Andreu.

He is from Nou Barris, but few would say so after so many years living around the parish that gives its name to the district.

As soon as we arrive, Narcís Sala makes an effort to make us see that we are not in just any old room.

Murals and emblems line the walls of a space open to the public, because of course, all the boys and girls who are part of a club that is creating one of the most important moments of recent years: the fight to leave the Segunda Federación and be promoted to the Primera Federació, the third tier of Spanish football.

Sant Andreu has the chance to win promotion for the second time in two seasons, following images that will go down in the history of Catalan football, when more than 300 Barcelona fans travelled to the Helmántico in Salamanca.

Yes, a club that five years earlier had been living in an unstable position was on the verge of fulfilling the dream of continuing to make strides in semi-professionalism.

©Gorka Urresola/ Terrace Edition. Sergi. Unió Esportiva Sant Andreu.

This is how Sergi narrated it in the Narcís Sala stadium, as if it were a sports chronicle.

Because Sergi is familiar with the history of Sant Andreu even though, as a child, he proudly wore the blue and white colours of Barça. So, how did this passion for the team of the four stripes come about?

Well, ‘it all started when the chaplain of the parish decided to give away tickets to the children of the village to promote the club’. It was then that Sergi, together with some friends, discovered what lay behind the sentiment of Unió Esportiva Sant Andreu.

And while Barça was sinking into a deep crisis between incompetent directors and the departure of the best player in history, Sant Andreu was emerging as a neighbourhood club and a new alternative to home football.

And little by little, in the south goal and surrounded by waste (the name given to the group of radical Sant Andreu fans), a passion was born that accompanied Sergi throughout his youth.

So much so, that it has accompanied him, to the point of following the results of Sant Andreu, like that unbeatable promotion in Salamanca.

He was unable to attend, as he was working as a monitor with the school, but even the lack of coverage meant that in some way, that moment could form part of his life.

It was a long match, between the torrential rain and the bad state of the pitch, which lasted up to two hours, and from a distance, with the mobile phone shivering, Sergi’s nerves spread to all the children who, once the final result was known, were euphoric when they saw their monitor out of his mind, he explained between laughs.

Sant Andreu is special. Its aura indicates this. But also its history and its emblems.

Even at the top, and wearing the club’s precious samarreta from the hand of Meyba, a legendary brand, he shows us an object with a special value. It’s a pin of a penya from the neighbourhood ‘Penya Andreuenca de Bergara’.

At the bottom, the Sant Andreu shield. But it’s not the same as the one we all know. The current blue disappears in favour of the colours of the Spanish flag.

Even the shield of a neighbourhood club was affected by the Franco era, with a measure that would not change until 2006.

But the anecdotes are endless. Like the one about Dalí and Sant Andreu. Because it turns out that the painter from Empordà gave a painting to the club, but its whereabouts were rumoured to become unsure during the term of office of the former president of Barça.

Nothing more was ever revealed about an object that is still in an unknown location.

Although he may be from the neighbourhood next door, he has been in Sant Andreu all his life, and for him, it is not just another district of Barcelona.

For some reason they call it the town. Because the passion for Sant Andreu would not be understood without this idiosyncrasy that makes it more than just a club and that has brought neighbourhood football to an entire community.

The emblems endure here.