Miguel Delibes, Barça chronicler

–Are you interested in football ?

–Nothing. Or, to be more exact, almost nothing.

Between 1949 and 1965, Miguel Delibes (Valladolid 1920-2010) collaborated with the Catalan weekly Vida Deportiva , for which he covered news related to Real Valladolid and wrote reports on the football matches between Barcelona and Espanyol at the Zorrilla stadium. In an interview published in July 1954, the renowned writer and novelist acknowledged that his relationship with football was strictly economic. His correspondence provided him with much-needed income.

“I consider football, and I apologize to my inevitable dissenting opinions, to be a thing of very relative importance. In my eyes, and from Valladolid, I can hardly find any justification for it other than what we might call local patriotism. The fact that every Sunday thousands—and who knows, millions—of people talk about Valladolid, even through something as inconsequential as football, seems amusing and enjoyable to me. That a left-sided midfielder or a full-back earns twenty times more money than what I earn from a novel I've been working on for a year, if I'm honest, seems unfair to me,” he explained.

The novelist signed his articles in 'Vida Deportiva' as Miguel del Seco

The author of masterpieces such as Five Hours with Mario and The Holy Innocents had only one known sporting hobby: hunting. But his football chronicles would be interesting to rescue from oblivion, if only to admire the clarity of his prose. Contact between Delibes and Vida Deportiva came about in the simplest and most direct way: through Josep Vergés, the Barcelona editor of both Delibes's literary work and the weekly, which was printed in the workshops of La Vanguardia on Calle Pelayo.

Among the extensive correspondence preserved by the Miguel Delibes Foundation are numerous letters exchanged between the writer and the editor, which have even led to the publication of a book, Miguel Delibes-Josep Vergés. Correspondence, 1948-1986, published by Destino. Thus, on June 6, 1949, Delibes accepted the offer of correspondence and noted: "With regard to impartiality of judgment, I believe that, although I am not old, I have been a football fan for enough years to feel free of that stubborn passion that clouds the serenity of a novice in any activity." In the response from Destino Editions, they specify that "for each regular article, whenever a Catalan team plays in Valladolid, we will pay 150 pesetas."

For 16 La Liga seasons, Delibes watched the best players from Barcelona and Espanyol parade through Zorrilla and judged their performances. In some cases, he had to analyze difficult matches, as the Blaugrana team wasn't particularly well-received in Valladolid, especially during Kubala's tenure. Catalan journalist Celestí Martí Farreras wrote during those years when he summarized, "What happened in Valladolid reflects that something goes beyond sport at some venues in Spain."

Delibes signed his chronicles as Miguel del Seco and reflected, for example, on the serious incidents, with red cards and a halted match in December 1954, or the scandal of a Cup semi-final in May 1952, when the home side won 3-1 but Barcelona's 5-0 first-leg defeat failed to overcome. "We have come to discover in football a mysterious concatenation," wrote Delibes, "that gives refereeing errors an unsuspected dimension.

The spectators in Valladolid carried in their chest a resentment against Jáuregui [referee of the first leg in Les Corts] resentment that they displaced on referee Marrón [the one from Zorrilla] when he did not whistle an involuntary handball by Seguer in the area and a trip, this one deliberate, by Biosca on Olcina inside the area as well.”

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