A Spanish Everton?

A few years ago I went to see Gamba Osaka play in Japan -– they play in blue and white, and were at the time playing in Division Two. Their cross town rivals, Cerezo Osaka were playing in the J League and play in pink (but in the 80s played in an all red kit...).

In 2013 Gamba won promotion from Division Two, and in their first season back up went on to win both the title and the cup... and got to see their rivals get relegated...

Other blue n' white clubs I follow around the world include Hertha Berlin, MTK Budapest, Millonarios, Talinna Kalev, Molde, Lech Poznan, HJK, Emelec... Any time I travel I always try to find a blue n' white team to follow - and in my hometown I go watch Melbourne Victory and North Melbourne Kangaroos. Like the saying goes, "Once a blue, always a blue..." ;)

Great article Sam. I lived in Spain for a year just over 10 years ago and fell in love with la liga, but in particular some of the less heralded teams like Deportivo and Zaragoza. Hadn't ever thought of Espanyol though I must admit. The similarities are certainly striking, I will be sure to keep an eye out for them in future.

Since some people on here are talking about ways to show the fans' displeasure at Martinez, I am reminded of the last live Spanish game I went to see. It was Sevilla v Valencia, last match of the season about three years back.

Sevilla had to win to qualify for Europe. Mid way through the first half, they werelosing and the ultras behind one goal unfurled a massive banner they'd come prepared with, which basically said the chairman should sod off.

In the end, Sevilla turned things around and were comfortably ahead with a few minutes left. The ultras then got out a different banner along the lines of 'ok we won but we still don't like you'. Superb effort!

I agree with lots of what you say,however the main drawback is that Espanyol have always been associated with the facists in many peoples eyes.I'm being pestered to go out so have to be brief,similar to another" real ",club espanyol were always the "franco" team in Catalunya Their nickname is the Parakeets by the way.Guillam Balague is their most famous fan over here,his other club....... yes the rs.

Thanks for that Sam, it's true you learn something every day on here. I had no idea that Espanyol were located in Barcelona, do they have a proper fan in charge of their affairs who perhaps in his younger days sat in Pluma de muchachos??

Funnily enough I've had a soft spot for Sporting Lisbon (despite the fact they were the previous team to turf us out of the Europa), for similar reasons. In the shadow of Benfica. But also because when I went to the Benfica game a few seasons ago, we got chatting to a couple of Sporting fans. It was clear their hatred of Benfica rivalled ours of the RS.

Fc Barcelona were formed in 1899 by foreign ex pats amongst them,The Witty brothers from england and Joan Gamper a swiss national,who basically ran them,reformed them,got them going when they were about to go bust in the early days.To understand espanyol being formed as an alternative to Barca,you have to get the whole Catalan independence situation.The reason Barca are such an omnipresence in the city and all over Catalunya is because they are seen as the national team.Espanyol were seen as the foreigners.Obviously after the civil war,Barca were ostracised as being left wing and a team called espanol as they were named up until they catalaned their name in about 2002 ? were more favoured by the fascists,thus hated by the general independence minded public. Think Everton supporting thatcher in the 80's against a liverpool labour endorsing rs team and you ll get what I mean,except the 80's in Catalunya have been going on for hundreds of years .I know barca colours,flags kits are everywhere nowadys but thats more down to glory hunting than political persuasion,which is where it started.

Food for thought, Sam. I must admit that I have a soft spot for Espanyol, and can identify with their rough treatment from the Catalan media. I also think the Fascist accusation is grossly unfair; their name is not an anti-Catalan provocation, but was chosen by their founders to create a sense of local identity to set them apart from their local rivals - Barça- and their foreign founders and owners. In fact, all of the Espanyol supporters that I know are undeniably Catalan in outlook, background and political leanings. Coincidentally, one of them took my son and me to see them last week against Atlético Madrid. The new stadium is brilliantly designed in terms of access, unobstructed views, and atmosphere-favourable structure. Admittedly, the fact that it is part of a big shopping and leisure complex in neighbouring town Cornellà is a little weird (Would the Tesco experience have been like this?), but the club is rightly proud of it. The only negative is seeing so many people wearing RS gear, mainly because they were the opponents invited to the stadium's showpiece opener (Espanyol stuffed them 3-0, by the way).
Nevertheless, when people make the 'Barça-Espanyol/Everton-Liverpool' comparison to me, I insist that the analogy is off the mark, if the two clubs' honours lists are compared. A more accurate one, if you ask me, would be between us and the aforementioned Atlético, or in Italy, Napoli - in the latter case, there is even historical coincidence with regard to both clubs' period of greatest glory, the mid to late 80s.
Although pondering on footballing soulmates does no harm, however, once you've been touched like Alan Ball was, there is simply no comparison to be made.

On a Spanish theme but seeing as Rat Boy helped Barca to beat Real Madrid how many players have played in that derby game and a Merseyside Derby. I am guessing here but I would say Lineker, McMannaman, Graveson, Mark Hughes and Suarez. I'm not too sure if Graveson ever played a first-team game for Madrid but somebody out there must know.

Tony Dunn you are right. In the 50’s- 70’s the Franco govt did all they could to weaken FC Barcelona and gave full support, first and foremost, to Real Madrid and secondly to Espanyol in an attempt to weaken the Catalan giants.

Barca are not plastics, Barca are part and parcel of the Catalan spirit. The vast majority of the Catalan population support Barca while the imported Spaniards (Franco flooded Catalonia and the Basque country with Spanish workers in order to weaken the local nationalists) tend to support Espanyol and Real Sociedad (as opposed to Atletico Bilbao) in the Basque country.

So it’s a bit unfair, IMO, painting the Barca fans as plastics as they had to face plastic bullets and tear gas whenever they waved their Catalan flags or sang their national anthem at games.

I lived and worked in Bilbao, in the Basque region of Spain. This was in the mid-noughties. I could identify with that club. I don't know what their financial situation is now, but they were brassic 10 years ago living off their former glories in the 80's - sound familiar?

Of course we shared a manager too. I loved hearing stories and their opinion on Kendall. I never heard a bad word about him. They said he sometimes went back there on holiday, and he loved his wine..That sounds about right I thought.

Nice article Sam ,I've often thought about Espanol having similarities to us. Always had a soft spot for Port Vale too !

As a European truck driver for 25 years or so to
Spain, Italy and talking football I got the impression that Espanyol.AC Milan,Ateltico Madrid & Torino were supported in the local and near area whilst the local rivals eg. Barca,Inter,Real @ Juve were followed by glory seekers and braggers from all over the place a bit like here (2 of whom wear that other colour :!:). Not really political.

With full respect to John and his knowledge of roads, it's not about the colour of the shirt. I didn't eat tomatoes or strawberries as a child, probably to my own detriment. Catalonia is not Spain, that's why everybody supports Barcelona.

Fuck all to do with bandwagons, it's their national team, not Spain... Why are there no Spain games played at the Camp Nou? It's not their team. Catolonia wants their independence back, like Scotland... It's very political and always will be in a way us in England will never understand. People were shot for going to a game and declaring allegiances. Barca is Catalunya's team, Catalunya is not España.

In reply to Tony, his last sentence is what I tried to say it is glory seeking not political. The wearing of Barcelona, Man Utd & Liverpool shirts in the south of England (both that red colour) is glory-seeking not passionate support of your team who don't have the money to keep up.

Sam, I had a similar experience. Went on a family trip to the city of Barcelona ten years ago. On the tourist bus, visit Barcelona's ground, thought it was great. But then the thought ... Hang on, this is like being a tourist in Liverpool and heading to Anfield.

A night or two later was Espanyol's last game of the season. They had to win to qualify for the Uefa Cup. Well, what an atmosphere. Pitch invasion and great limbs moments when they did it. Reminded me of Evertonians. I always try and catch them on Sky when I can.

A few Blues have given me stick in past years over declaring a degree of allegiance to Espanyol. But I'd make two points. One, it can perpetuate an issue if you become "prisoners of history", pigeon-holing people. Two, on our visit, there were a group of 30 or 40 Espanyol fans in their own pen, waving Spanish flag etc, who seemed to be at odds with the main Espanyol end. If they were fascists, they were very much in a minority.

That was when they were playing in the Olympic stadium. I have not been to their new stadium but did go to Hampden a couple of years later when they played Seville in Europa final (El Gloryhunter, me). Great game, but they lost on pens, Everton-like?

I also look out for the results of Cadiz, currently trying to get out of the third tier. And some team in Chile called Everton.

When I toured Barcelona, I made a point of visiting the Olympic Stadium where Espanyol played and the similarities between Everton and Liverpool struck me then. Now they've moved the Estadi Cornellà -El Prat. which is located in the suburb of Cornellà de Llobregat about 30-45 from Barcelona centre (actually outside the city, I think). I wonder what Evertonians would say about a similar move?

Other similar club comparisons in terms of worldwide recognition and branding? Torino vs Juventus.? TSV Munich vs Bayern? Betis vs Seville

And last year, while in Madrid I went to watch Real play Rayo Vallecano without realising it was a local derby. Getafe is also a team from the Madrid area.

Many people still do not realise that we are from Liverpool. It's a long debated subject but I still think that we should incorporate the city name in our official title.

Liverpool FC are not Barcelona or Real Madrid and Everton are not Tranmere Rovers, I wish we could stop bigging up our neighbours and selling Everton FC short. I understand why it happens and the reasons behind those views, but Everton FC is our club an even today we have much to be proud about.

I agree that our name should be linked with the City of Liverpool a lot more than it does and something along the lines of "Everton FC - Proud to represent the City of Liverpool since 1878" would help; I'm sure many people have a better tag-line than this but I hope you get my drift.

Totally with you on this one, Patrick. Maybe if Espanyol had been the Numero Uno in Barcelona for the first 70 years of their existence and had won a number of league championships, I could have seen the similarities.

Steve, tradition is a wonderful thing to be cherished but in today's Premier League era, where marketing and branding is paramount, it means very little to the outside world I'm afraid.

We are like Espanyol (despite our more illustrious history) because we're regarded as the second team in Liverpool - by those that even realise we're from the city. Not my view of the world incidentally!

Morbo....The Story of Spanish Football is well worth a read about these matters. For the wider context anything by Paul Preston on the Civil War....first rate historian and lifelong blue !
Steve...wonder what view Danny Burgin would have taken ?