With Girona’s new era still in its infancy, before City Football Group became involved in 2017, the bosses did a deep dive into the make-up of their membership. Having never reached La Liga, they were everybody’s second team.
Fifty per cent of those signed up, the core support, also described themselves as Barcelona supporters. Going to Girona was a hobby, Barca the passion in a way that fandom is just that bit different in Spain.
Nice day out, Girona. Beautiful city, with its multi-coloured hanging houses over the river Onyar. The area around the cathedral provided the set to some of Game of Thrones. Michelin stars for the foodies. A paella bocadillo is worth a try.
And then there is a charming old ground with a capacity of only 13,500. Estadio Montilivi actually shakes when the wind whips up. Or when supporters jump and thrash around the temporary stands.
Their team has certainly sent reverberations around La Liga this season. Twenty games in, a place with the population of Burnley still proudly sits top, ahead of Real Madrid and their illustrious neighbours. Presumably a few of those two-club supporters have been contemplating difficult choices over recent months, especially when Girona turned up and did them 4-2 last month.
‘We thought the way we should talk to fans, our tone of voice, should not polarise or turn them against Barcelona because it was inside them,’ chief executive Ignacio Mas-Baga tells Mail Sport. ‘We opened our arms, let’s try to become a new club who want to do something different.
‘We were selling 800 shirts a year. Kids now wear Girona. In retail, we’ve grown 2000 per cent in the last eight years. From €30,000 revenue of all retail sales to €1.2million. Shirts sell all over the world. We’re a small
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