Come a Spanish victory on Sunday the Catalans may walk la Ramblas but not with real intent

Lorenzo Caminante, Barcelona, Catalonia

This Sunday two World Cup final debutants will meet at Johannesburg´s Soccer City Stadium in South Africa. The pre-tournament favourite Spain, after a convincing victory against Germany in the semi-final on Wednesday, is expected by many pundits to defeat the Netherlands. More than a few have noted that watching Spain is in many ways the same as watching FC Barcelona. It is no surprise. The best club team in the world in recent years fielded seven players in the Spanish kit on Wednesday night including goal scorer, Barça captain and born and bred Catalan Carles Puyol playing his eighty-ninth game and scoring his third goal for la roja. There were more on the bench.

For many Catalans watching at home victory in the final will be bitter-sweet. Many yearn for independence from the rest of Spain. Many Catalans, considered to be more reserved and hard working than other Spaniards, talk of Spain as a separate country altogether and think of themselves as Catalan and nothing else. An acquaintance seethed because he felt that his homeland was territory “occupied” by Madrid and Castile. Such views are rare but exist. Unsurprisingly Catalonia´s only Catalan language daily newspaper Avui published news of the semi-final result as a front page footnote to the main article concerning a pro-autonomy rally due to take place coincidently the day before the final in stark contrast all others.

My Catalan friend Dani has been watching all the Spain games but only “to see how the Barça players go”. He also watched Argentina to see how Lionel Messi fared.  During the home and away season he says that he doesn´t like football, “only Barça”. While grudgingly accepting and even possibly welcoming victory in Sunday´s final, ever the pragmatic Catalan he works in the main office of a major Spanish sporting federation, the thought of four years of gloating by the Madrid based media and Españolistas on top of Spain´s victory in the European Cup in 2008 fills him with dread. Dani was one of approximately 50,000 who braved the cold at Camp Nou to watch the friendly game last December between the Catalan national team and Argentina. Puyol and many of the other Catalan players pull on the shirt for them too. Barça coach Pep Guardiola, who played forty-seven times for Spain and won gold with Spain in the Barcelona Olympics, played seven times for the Catalan team. Catalans like Dani dream of a time when the games cease to be friendly and start being true internationals. With a swag of possible World Cup winners now would be a good time.

His colleague Cristina however, who considers herself Catalan and Spanish, has no such dilemmas. For her victory for Spain is victory for Catalonia. The late Juan Antonio Samaranch would agree. Perhaps it is no coincidence she supports Barcelona´s lesser known but unambiguously named football club Espanyol.

On the frequent occasions when Barça win a football trophy their supporters flock to Barcelona´s famous avenue la Ramblas to celebrate. Except for such occasions this once glorious boulevard is generally shunned by the locals as a tourist trap by day and a pickpocket´s paradise by night. Barça fans gather at the non-imposing Canalets fountain down towards the port end and after Spain´s semi-final victory I went down to see for myself what if anything was happening after Spain´s victory in its first World Cup semi-final. As I approached the mood was set by car horns blaring, fireworks left over from last months St John´s festival being let off and sure enough the avenue was fairly full of revellers. But not as full as a few months ago when Barcelona won the Spanish league and certainly not as full as when they won the Champions League in 2009. I only saw two men in Barça shirts. They looked like tourists. It is early days yet- the real test comes on Sunday. Perhaps Catalans have an inner Spaniard biding its time for the real celebration on Sunday (then smartly back to work Monday morning) but I could not help the feeling that something was missing. Perhaps I should have gone to Plaça Espanya on the other side of the city. I am told that there were many more people there and in retrospect by name alone it is a more obvious location in which to commemorate a Spanish victory. They can not all have been on holidays from other regions.

I have not caught up with Dani since but another Catalan I know is looking forward to a win in the final. “For the Barça boys” she said with a wink. Come victory on Sunday night the Catalans may walk the Ramblas but not with real intent.. and the ticker-tape parade will be in Madrid.