Solidarity, family and Barça spirit at the Annual Association Dinner.

On Friday, the 1st of December, over 400 people packed out Barcelona’s Hotel Catalonia Plaza for the Barça Players Association (BPA) Annual Dinner. The evening had a cabaret theme; according to the master of ceremonies anything could happen, and of course it would be kept a secret by all those present. The dinner gave the whole Association family the chance to get together for what has become one of the unmissable dates on the Blaugrana calendar.

The Generalitat’s General Secretary for Sport, Gerard Figueras, was in attendance at the event, and wished to highlight how Barça’s values could be seen in their true essence through the Association. Those same values were also spoken of by the BPA President, Ramon Alfonseda: “Solidarity between ourselves and also with others, the Association as a family, and the Barça spirit, those are three values which must be maintained as pillars of our Association.” Alfonseda showed his gratitude to FC Barcelona, who were represented by Vice-President Jordi Cardoner: “We’re on the right track, we’ve done projects and we’ve got new ones being worked on with La Masia, FCB Escola, the Museum, and especially the Foundation”. Cardoner wanted to underline the rejuvenation of the BPA, “not only due to new ex-players joining, but also other members.”

One of the emotional moments of the evening was when Alfonseda presented Luis Chavarría with a shirt in memory of his brother Sergio, a BPA member, who passed away on the 30th of September, after suffering a cardiac arrest having just finished a training session with the Veterans. During the dinner a new video was shown for the first time, starring over 100 Association members;  over the backing track of Txarango they explained the values which define the BPA for them.

As is tradition, over the course of the Annual Dinner ex-players were presented with their medals for having made 50 or 100 appearances for the Association team. In an awards ceremony which was presented by the journalist Pere Escobar, the BPA Top Goalscorer Awards were also handed to their respective winners. This year, for the first time, there was also an award for the women’s team top goalscorer.

Bronze Medal for reaching 50 appearances

• Sebastià Herrera
• Albert Escobar
• Paco Martínez
• Miquel Pallarès
• Quique Salvador
• Pau Tejeda

Silver Medal for reaching 100 appearances

• José Manuel Guijo 
• Javi Molina 
• Josep Navarro 
• Josep Rodríguez "Rodri" 
• Pere Sánchez

"Juli Mocholi" BPA Top Goalscorer Award

• Cristina Jiménez 
• Landi Martínez