C.D.Carmelo [Barcelona] vs Redfearns [Barnsley]

Last November my friend Tony from Barnsley [England] asked me the favour to try to arrange a Football match for 13 year old lads in Barcelona.
They were 40 english people coming over the 26th of January to see Barça-Celta from the spanish premier league. Tony thought it would be the perfect chance for Redfearns club, from the Sheffield League, to play some football with a local team. I promised him I would do my best to sort it out and find one.

Although I have no connections football related anymore [I dont play since I was a teen], I remembered my sisters boyfriend Manuel plays for the 1st team of a club in Barcelona called C.D. Carmelo. Very kindly he promised me to ask the management and see if there was any availability on the dates for the younger categories teams.
Manuel worked really hard on it, and asked as well several other clubs in Barcelona to see if it was possible to fix the International friendly match.
But It wasnt that easy, as here clubs were in the middle of their league season and they had to ask also their rival teams for possible date changes. So finally 2 days before the mentioned weekend, when I thought I was never gonna get a reply, Manuel rang me and told me everything was OK.

Apparently Club Deportivo Carmelo said yes!

C.D. Carmelo

So I rang Tony on thursday to let him know the good news and also to pass the message to the sports coordinator of the english team [Redfearns]. Nice one.

Carmelo is a popular working class neighbourhood up on a hill in Barcelona. It had a rough reputation in the 70's and 80's. During the growth of the city in the 60's some houses didnt have water and others nor even electricity, so due to the low prices on property, lack of public transport and its difficult access, lots of emigrants from the south of Spain coming to work in the Catalan industries settled there. In the early 80s a taxi wouldnt give you a ride to Carmelo. Needless to say it was dead easy to score dope, buy a 'hot' stereo for your car, or get in trouble with any local gang.

Redfearns JFC

But now things are starting to change. The local council is building up a new tube line in Carmelo [Google Carmelo and you will see the mess they are doing with it] .

With the magnificient views from the city, I can guarantee you properties prices are rising like a rocket. No more rents for 200-300€ per month with top views of the sea. Welcome to the Euro.

Street Parkour in Carmelo

It sounds like the end of Carmelo as we know it. I personally lived there for a while and I enjoyed it a lot [His proximity to the beautiful Park Güell is a bonus], so I'm not really sure if I'm gonna like the changes. Years ago nobody wanted to live there, now everybody wants to.

IAlways knew that was gonna happen.

So back to the match, on sunday morning we headed to the football ground in Carmelo Hill.

And there was Mik [Tony's friend and the Redfearns tour management] and also a bunch of 12-14 year old kids with some of their dads.

Pre-Match photos

Kick off was at 12 AM, and 35 minutes each half. There was another match before hand right when we arrived, so we had a little chat with our English visitors and shared a beer or two.
My friends Jordi and Guillermo despite the hang over from the night before turned up to the event too, so did my sisters with their respective man.

Manuel and my nephew Alejandro [1 year old], the new Barça generation!

The 1st match was C.D. Carmelo vs Trinitat, another neighbourhood in Barcelona, they were about 16 years old me thinks, and it did end up with some of the players sent off and a bit of a fight, they were arguing like mad and loudly screaming each other. Local rivalry I guess. I can tell you I was thinking and hoping right at the moment our friendly match would be a bit more....just friendly!

And no doubt it was.

I was pretty impressed to see the Barnsley kids warming up before the match doing some exercises with a lot of discipline.

Redfearns warming up

Barcelona and Montjuich hill at the bottom

All Carmelo kids parents and local friends gathered there to see the match, I noticed a mixture of curiosity and great expectation on the atmosphere. The local coach told me the young ones very excited about the event. I was surprised to see quite a few people turning up. Not too bad being announced only two days before.

The English were constantly supporting and cheering their team .

I dont think C.D. Carmelo had in the past that many chances to play with foreign teams really.

Redfearns skills

Meanwhile our english friends parents were having a good time.

It was a nice sunny sunday morning.

Redfearns were very well placed on the field, and they had really good oportunities to score on the 1st half. Quality football.

My nephew Alejandro was surprisingly quiet and seemed very interested in the match

C.D. Carmelo did an outstanding job

I couldnt watch much of the game really as I was a bit busy translating english to Spanish to my friends and The Barnsley Clan, mostly at the bar :-D

Barnsley Fans

I have to say on behalf of the Redfearns team that the field was sand, not grass, which is the normal thing here. Some clubs have proper grass, but only posh ones, which is not the case of C.D. Carmelo obviously. I guess Redfearns werent used to it and this affected their overall performance, some even had their knees bit wounded at the end.

My sister and my friend Jordi, and Alejandro doing his first steps ever!

Also Mik told me 2 of their best players couldnt make it on the customs due to passport problems with the airline and also for being underage, so they had to stay in England. You can imagine the poor lads were devastated. That made not possible to the Barnsley team to make some substitutions, they had to play only with 11. C.D. Carmelo did a brilliant match too although they seemed to me a bit more tricky playing. I wouldnt say bully but certainly well trained from their local league.

C.D. Carmelo 1st goal

1...

2...

Goal!

At two o'clock the match was over. We all had a great time so did the kids. Parents were taking photos and also both teams exchanged a t shirt as a present.

The management agreed to set another match probably late this year.

Meanwhile absolutely ALL the draught and bottled beer from C.D. Carmelo bar was finish, so Mik offered a quick one anywhere nearby. Carmelo has plenty of top local nice bars so me and my friends decided to join.

How we could not?

We only had about an hour left though, they had to catch a bus to Barça stadium and I had to ran back to Madrid.

But we couldnt leave without the classic 'One for the road'.

A well deserved refreshment

And god they can drink. I was well warned with an SMS by my friend Sean who is from Barnsley too.

There was an obvious language barrier but everybody was very pleased and there was a fantastic friendly atmosphere. Our english friends did some video recording and I was told also the match will be reported in some local newspaper in Barnsley.

The bloke on the middle had a cool Man United tattoo

We had our beer and a nice chat.

Lots of beers ...

But around 3:30 they had to leave. It was a very nice experience and I was very glad that everything went OK at the end.

Me and my friends enjoyed it a lot. The main thing was to have a good time and also make a bunch of young man happy .

Goodbye Redfearns, we hope to see you again in Barcelona soon!

Man of the match

And the mission was completed, with the priceless help of Manuel, Tony, Mik and of course C.D. Carmelo and all the Barnsley clan.

Thank you all to make this happen. Now Barnsley and Carmelo are well connected.

Pedro Vila

The Dancing Girls&The 'Yamakasi' Parkour Gang.

Last weekend I spend 5 days in my beloved city Barcelona. Despite I work in Madrid since 5 years ago, I like to go and visit me old mates there, at least once a month. Summer is close and the sea always calls me by this time of the year. You cant avoid your mediterranean roots, can you?.

So sunday afternoon, after a copious intake of Beer&food in Carmelo Hill, me and me old buddies decided to spent the afternoon on the top this little mountain in Barcelona where you can enjoy a fantastic and stunning view of the city.

The fact is that this few hills arent normally advertised on the tourist guides, so that allows to keep the place still as interesting, less crowded and very relaxing as it used to be. [Not like Park Güell one really].

So about 4 pm we decided to walk to the top to have a sit there enjoy the view of the city and have a good smoke&chat as we used to do in our (Long gone) teen days.

On the top of Carmelo Hill there used to be an old Army settlement bunker with a long big anthena right in the middle. Its not been used for ages anymore, but some rests still remain there.

My Dad says they could hear the bombs and artillery be heard from the ships in the docks bombing the Carmelo hill during The Spanish Civil War.

Now is only used and heavily enjoyed by ' Urban Graffiters' which I personally think is a far more inteligent use. We certainly enjoyed our funny smoke, but for some reason the place wasnt that quiet this time, as something strange happened to us up there, about an hour after we got on top. Something pretty wierd to be honest.

kids playing

About 5 pm I saw this group of 6-8 girls who were walking from one side of the hill towards where we were sat. As they were progressing on their 'climbing' I kept observing them .

Half an hour later, they walked near us and all sat, right near the edge, about few yards from where we were. After few minutes they suddenly split and start to locate on few different places of the hill, they were spread all over the top. Within seconds they all started to move in a very slow way, like in a slow motion dance.

They all danced and moved their hands in a slow motion way, with their eyes closed.

We had a fresh, but gently brezze up there, you could close your eyes and open your arms and get an incredible feeling of freedom. Me and me mates we were looking each other....wtf?..... we didnt quiet understand, but we kept rollin' and pretending we were used to this situations. You want to be discrete when this sort of things happens, dont you?

We even thought at some point we were target of a joke, or perhaps a tv hidden camera. But no, the wole thing seemed pretty serious, the girls kept on dancing and concentrated on their slow movements. It was the perfect communion with Barcelona Sky. Althought, at some point their dance did remind me that Chinese dance [Tai-Chi?], it wasnt quiet exactly the same I have to say.

The 'scenario' gaved the whole place a very strange [but at the same time] interesting atmosphere. Considering the fact we were pretty ignored [Or thats what I thought] , I decided it was the time to take my camera off my pocket and have some fun.

The Parkour&'Yamakasi'&Parkour Gang

But the surprises that afternoon didnt end up there. When we thought nothing else could get more unreal or bizarre, we suddenly saw on the distance, in the pines tree forest, 3 young lads running also to the top. They were all bare chest and wearing track suits, and I could swear the oldest was probably about 15 years old.

On a pretty impressive way they reached the top within minutes and sweating like mad they ran all around us and near the'slow motion dance' girls too. They jumped over huge stones, ran on top of fences and walk upside down on the walls edges. Wikit. They didnt stop at all for about 60 minutes.

I did hear about it before, but never seen them...

They were the Catalan 'Yamakasi'!!

For those who never heard they are also called 'Parkour' its an outdoor free run, no gravity-urban monkey activity which involves people using the urban 'furniture' to jump and run from one place to another. It can be a wall, a 8 store rough or a bridge, this people has no limits! If you are interested The 'Yamakasi' and the english 'Space Chase' are probably the most popular films on the genre.

Strangely enough, as the minutes ran, nobody there seemed bothered by the others presence, and while my mates were rollin up I carried taking some more photographs.

The 3 young lads were gone about 7 pm. They ran down the hill again, probably trying to find another place for their brave activity.

Goodbye Yamakasis...

The girls kept doing their strange dance for a bit longer, and about 8 pm they started to gather again and all together lie down on the floor like if they were suddenly on a very deep sleep.(!)

An intense release of energy?, An excellent LSD?, fuck! ....I want to try that!......

So we had there this 3 young kids pulling off the most fearless stunts I ve seen in my entire life, and a bunch of 'Hypnotized' iluminated young girls waving their hands and moving their bodies in the slowest way you can. All this in the last lost corner of your city, where the most exciting thing you expect to find is a bunch of stray cats.

I'm glad I have my camera with me that day. You never know what life can offer you...

Some 'Le Parkour' Links:

BBC Parkour
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
http://www.teamtraceur.com/
http://www.parkour.net/