In 2019, the Copa del Rey launched a new format, with single-game qualifiers up to the semifinals that are played in the field of the lower-category team. The RFEF wanted to pay the way for the modest, who deposit their ambitions in the first rounds to put themselves in the showcase.
However, a First RFEF club -the new category created below Second-, the Athletic Balearic Islands, has gone one step further, qualifying for the round of 16, where it will be measured this Sunday at 12.00 with Valencia after eliminating two other First Division rivals: Getafe (5-0) and Celta (2-1).
Deeds from lower level sets are always counted as David vs. Goliath. Squads that play in the mud and set a trap on their playing fields, described as cages. Pride, illusion, combat… The terms almost always coincide.
But if the magnifying glass approaches Athletic there is a team with a tactical board that has been key in its feat or an ambitious economic project, championed by the German hotel businessman Ingo Volckmann, to ascend to Second, where this team, founded in 1920, was active on four occasions, between the 50s and the 60s.
To this is added a hobby that, unlike what happens with other similar clubs, does not contemplate double membership to declare itself “100% balearica” (so written, without accent), on an island where the hegemony is RCD Mallorca.
The blackboard
“There are no excuses, Atlético Baleares beat us well,” he declared in the press room Eduardo Coudet, Celta coach, after the defeat against Atlético Baleares in the round of 32. The Argentine did not resort to the classic blaming speech and recognized the merits of the rival, who knew how to get ahead, hold the tie and finish the fight against an opponent who unsuccessfully resorted to his highest standard, Iago Aspas. Not like that.
The keys to this elimination, such as the victory in the round prior to Getafe, or the good performance of the team in the First RFEF, are in the book and in the head of Xavi Calm (Castellar del Vallès, Barcelona, 1981).
A young coach, who has been growing in the bronze category of Spanish football, to which must be added an experience as second of Pep Clotet at Birmingham. Just nine months, but they have left a mark on their catalog.
“Against Getafe we knew how to take advantage of the expulsion they suffered and we stayed close to their goal at all times. Against Celta we managed to defend the result well emotionally, “he explains to EL PERIÓDICO DE ESPAÑA, a newspaper that belongs to this group, Prensa Ibérica, the coach of the Balearic Islands, a profile far from heroics, turning his surname into his way of being:” I am a normal guy and that absolute normality cannot lead me to be histrionic in my idols. My main reference is Marcelino Garcia Toral (Athletic coach), I like his game and personality ”.
This is also reflected on its blackboard, where the direct style. He explains that his approach is metamorphic: from a 4-4-2 with two points fixed to the system with three centrals and two lanes -also with a pair up- that he arranged against Getafe.
It adapts to the rival and the situation, although always preserving the verticality and the bite while keeping the back. “I’m looking for a style that is easily recognizable by the fans,” says the Balearic coach, who always has the sovereignty of the stands on the radar.
British influence
This idea was reinforced during the 2019/20 season, when football lived in the heat of the fans of the Birmingham in the Championship (second). “There the fields are always full and when it is game day, the whole day of the city is articulated around what happens in the field. There is also the recognition of merits. I won’t forget when we almost got out on our shoulders after lose 4-5 against Leeds ”, he recalls.
Why did the British adventure end? For a personal matter, his parents fell seriously ill at the same time. “They are well,” he clarifies, “but I had the responsibility that being an only child gives me.” He returned to be part of the coaching staff of Jordi Roger, with whom he had already made a good tandem in the Weather in Cornellà Catalan, where he ended up being the first coach as the successor of his comrade.
History repeated itself in the Balearic Islands: in March of last year, Calm took over the reins and Roger became the technical secretary. Job redeployment worked. Both retained their independence from which the blue and white team secured their place in the newly created First RFEF, although not the long-awaited promotion to professional football.
In England he also learned to revere the magic of the Cup, which has been beneficial for the Balearics in every way: “It has freed us from insecurities and has reinforced us in our fundamental objective, which is to reach the top in professional football.” For Calm, the tournament is a complement, far from the disdain shown by other coaches, who consider it a hindrance, especially after being eliminated.
A showcase
From the outset, the Atlético Baleares squad has viewed the tournament as one personal and collective claim, denying that being a professional is nothing more than military in the First and Second Division.
“It is a great showcase. There are already three First team teams that we have faced. The dynamics of this competition have taught that a First RFEF rival can harm any team. Dreaming is the fruit of work ”, he claims Ignasi Vilarrasa in statements to this newspaper.
It is left side is key in the story of the epic cup. He took the free kick that allowed Atlético Baleares to tie the first tie against him Calahorra at the last moment. The auction was at the goalkeeper’s expense Xavi Ginart, Balearic myth, and who even has a rock with his name. The classification was decided on penalties.
Vilarrasa is, like the rest of his teammates, making the fair and necessary routes to play in the Cup against Valencia. The staff suffered a covid-19 outbreak which led to the cancellation of the last league game. Only 12 players They have completed the training sessions of an atypical week, although the club expects to recover troops by Sunday.
Rascals against the VAR
However, the blue and white defender recalls that in the win against Getafe an alignment of circumstances was already arranged, with him and his teammate Ferrone, also lateral, forming in the center of the defense. “That meeting we started with a line of three behind, two lanes that were actually extreme … But the group is so good that whoever comes out, we compete like animals,” he ambitions.
The best proof that the Atlético Baleares project is aimed at professional football is its squad, where old rockers like Dioni, classic Second B killer, with sub-23s of enormous projection like Vilarrasa himself, who went through the quarry of Real Valladolid, of Barça (teammate of Araujo, Mingueza The Riqui Puig) or Cornellà, where he coincided with Xavi Calm.
“We have blind confidence in the project. It is a real roadmap to go up to Second “, affirms the footballer, assuming responsibility for the task. Hence, I see positive the introduction of VAR in this round, “that’s how we get used to it,” he says, more seriously than jokingly.
Although he knows that both he and his teammates will have to change certain maneuvers: “In our category you can do some tricks. We must not go rogue and we must avoid making silly mistakes in plays that are susceptible to being reviewed ”.
‘Exile’ and promotion
The triumphant advance in the Copa del Rey is a reward for the Balearic fans, accustomed to suffering. In the last ten years, the Atlétic has played five promotion playoffs a Second Division with negative result.
“Even if only for statistics, this year it will be our turn! There is no team that has promoted more and with less success, “he tells this newspaper in a tragicomic tone. Miguel Angel Ferrer, president of the Penya Balearica Es Pla, vice president of the Federation of Peñas Atlético Baleares, former player and member of the veterans of the blue and white club. Balearic to the core.
The idea for this supporters club came up a couple of years ago in the queue to get tickets for a game that was going to be played in the Campo de Son Malferit, where the club had to play ‘exile’ for six years due to the abandonment of the Balear Stadium.
“This was a tremendous kick. Our fiefdom was in the hands of the Procampo company, each shareholder had a part of it. Luckily we were able to return in September 2019 ”, says a fan who saw the fans cry on their return home, which already has a reform planned whose cost will be assumed Ingo Volckmann, president of Atlético Baleares.
Ingo Volckmann, president of Atlético de Baleares, celebrates the qualification for Primera RFEF.
One more fan
This German hotel businessman took over the reins of the project in 2014 after the entity saved the dissolution ‘in extremis’. He had nothing to do with the club’s ecosystem, but he is a football lover. He is a fan of Hertha de Berlin and has even had a box at the Olympic. His way of living football is passionate, although without neglecting the numbers, and that is something that the suffering blue and white social mass appreciates.
“He is not a president dressed in a suit and silk tie. Is a ‘hooligan’ from head to toe, another Balearic man who likes to be next to the stands “, Miguel Ángel Ferrer describes him, who reproduces a recent conversation that the federation had with him:” He told us: ‘Look, this year I can only invest eight million euros, but I want to finish the reform of the field, something that I have not been able to do because of the Covid, when I have money I will do it. ‘ It is outrageous what that means for a German man determined to go up to Second “.
With this socioeconomic project and with a good sporting performance, the Balearic fan’s chest swells more than ever to repeat, over and over again, that “I’m only from the AthleticWhat else do you want it to be? “, As Ferrer insists, and if you have to ask for a rival in the Cup,” let it be Mallorca, to ‘destroy’ it, on the green, inside our historic fort, the Balearic Stadium ”.
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