One of the most pathetic images from last weekend was that of a Rayo fan spitting on Thibaut Courtois in Vallecas, with a child and his father at his side. Sergio Fernandez, Europa goalkeeper, is used to having spit and even beer bottles fall on his goal during away games in the RFEF Second Division, the fourth category of Spanish football. At 27 years old, until now he had never wanted to talk about it on social networks. “What happens in the field stays in the field,” he values. But this Sunday he did share the insults and persecution that he suffered with his nine-year-old niece when he left the Terrassa field.
“One thing is to write it and another is to live it,” Sergio explains to this newspaper, who assures that it is “the most unfortunate situation in the 20 years that I have been stepping on soccer fields.” The clash had ended with a comfortable local victory (4-1) and without incidents or any tension that would predict what would happen at the start. “In the first leg he even had a good vibe with the Terrassa fans”. His mother, his sister, and his niece had come to cheer him on. The first two waited for him at a traffic light while he went with little Ana to look for the car in the ‘parking lot’. There a rival fan rebuked him. “Subnormal, they have put four on you.” “I told him that her attitude seemed unfortunate, especially when I was accompanied by a girl.” The fan argued as an excuse that he had not seen her youngest, as if in her absence the outburst had been justified her.
Although the situation was already unpleasant, it took on an even worse tone when other fans began to chase him when he was already in the car. “Lucky for a girl who stopped someone who was going straight to attack me.” The doorman repeatedly asked his niece if she was okay. “‘Yes, uncle,’ Ana told me. She happens to me at her age and she would still be crying.” He was nervous and couldn’t find her way out to the parking lot and in the end, fleeing from the fans, he managed to find her dodging cars in reverse. . At the roundabout there were some police officers to whom he informed them of what had happened.
Both Sergio and the president of Europa, Victor Martinezdescribe the incidents as “unfortunate”, although they disassociate the attitude of these madmen from the rest of the Vallesan fans and the club, of which they highlight the good treatment.
