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-Hello good afternoon. We are journalists from EL MUNDO, we had stayed with Fran Garagarza . Do you know where we can find him?
-Sure! I'm coming right now.
Idoia leaves for a moment the kitchen of the txoko of Ipurua and enters the offices. At that moment, Raúl and Jordi , the people in charge of the Eibar quarry, greet the two strangers and prepare their table to eat in the same places that minutes before the players Enrich, Dmitrovic and Kike García have done. Idoia returns with Fran, who introduces herself and helps Raúl and Jordi with food and cutlery.
«This table is the life of the club, in it you can find two players eating with the president, the administration and the laundry. Or with me, ”explains Garagarza, sports director of this little miracle called Eibar. Six consecutive seasons in Primera have caused his presence to be seen as part of the routine, as normal.
But is not.
It is not because Eibar is the smallest population that has ever had a club in Primera ( 27,400 inhabitants ). It is not because in a radius of 100 kilometers there are four teams with greater economic and social potential. It is not because it has a stadium of 8,000 spectators "that we will never be able to fill." It is not because their salary limit is the fifth lowest, despite the fact that another 15 teams have risen at this time. And yet, there it is, five consecutive stays. The first, yes, thanks to the administrative decline of Elche. But from there, four saves without the slightest rush.
The work of veterans
There are many pieces that have to fit perfectly for this to happen, but among all of them Garagarza points out one that he believes is basic: «The club model». «It delegates to the professionals of each area and trusts them. If I make a proposal to the sports commission and the council, as long as it is argued and fits our parameters, the answer in 95% of cases or more is 'forward'. One of the great secrets of the success of Eibar is what is generated from above for the professionals of the different departments to work ».
Linked to this club model, Garagarza also emphasizes the importance of the transmission of the Eibar idiosyncrasy and that veterans exercise this work with newcomers. «They are inherited values of those who had to do 15 hours of bus, of those who trained in gravel after work ...». Garagarza himself responds to that profile. Until the age of 40, he ran his own courier company, with which Guipúzcoa traveled by van. He left him to be second coach in Second ("I played it"); later, responsible for the quarry and, finally, sports director in 2011, still in Second B. Since then, two consecutive promotions and six years in First.
At the top of the pyramid is a woman, Amaia Gorostiza , a president whom players respect and adore in equal parts, because she looks after her employees as professionals, but above all as people. Pedro León, for example, personally went to the airport to find him in his car after passing a medical check-up in which he was diagnosed with a serious injury.
"We signed players, of course, but also people," says Garagarza. And that philosophy is reflected in the method that the club applies to the hiring of its players. When a scout goes to see a soccer player, he has a job on the field and another after the game. «You have to check if you leave the stadium alone or with your family, if you have children, what car do you have ... If a player of a subsidiary, who has not yet touched professional football, drives a car of 150,000 euros or carries a Rolex ... Ugh ... These are important data to later approach you in the personal interview, ”explains the sports director. That interview has aborted some signing: «If it is not punctual, if you are always looking at the mobile while you talk to him face to face ... If he behaves like this in this situation, the day things go wrong and ask him for a effort, it will be difficult to give it ».
Signings and sales
Because Eibar does not sign anyone without first speaking in person with him ... and with his partner, if he has one. In 2014, for example, they signed Piovaccari instead of other strikers with a similar profile because his wife was Spanish. In another case, Garagarza had to convince the wife of a soccer player that he didn't want to move to Eibar ... "and then he didn't want to leave." “Couples have a fundamental impact on soccer players and, in general, they spend little time. You have to listen to them and listen to them ».
In his interviews with the couples of potential signings, Garagarza tries to involve them in the club: «A player may want to leave in January and the club does not want him to leave. If I have explained his role in the team to his wife, when he arrives frustrated at home saying that he wants to leave, it is easier for her to make him see that he has given his word to the club and that he must fulfill it ». That attention continues after the signing: Eibar calls meetings with the couples of the players to get to know each other and to help them integrate into the club and the city.
This policy, together with the good eye of the technicians, has led to extraordinary sales: Jordan (signed for 1 million and sold for 14) , Lejeune, (1.5 and 10), Alejo (0.3 and 4), Peña (0 , 2 and 8), Keko (0 and 5) ... And in that aspect, the key figure of José Luis Mendilibar emerges: «One of the most important things is that the player believes in the coach's style of play and That happens to us. That is the main virtue of José Luis, which players have always believed in him ».
With Mendilibar, the only non-negotiable is the requirement. He is a technician who does not cut himself in shouting at a player who fails a clear occasion in a training that is "the worst player of First" and then force him to give voltereras -volatines, he calls them- as penance. «One of the important messages when we talk with the players is that it will cost them, that it is a day-to-day life of great physical and mental demand and that if they are not prepared for that, they will end up outside Eibar. But if it is, it will do well in time, ”Gargarza says.
Because after the shower, they play a game of cards with Mendilibar on the bus, they go to txoko where Idoia is waiting for them with hot food and they share a table with the president, the head of the press, the person in charge of customer service ... And so the wheel keeps turning and the miracle of Eibar becomes routine. «In these five years 15 teams have gone down and none has been the Eibar . Something we will be doing well ».
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