Victims with reward in Alcabre

Diego Crespo (Vigo, 1974) knows what it is to paint goals, muddy the field markings, paint the line with lime, inflate balls, wash equipment or go from house to house with members Alcabre Arenas charge fees. Today, for 17 years, he is the president of the club from Vigo, for which he once played, but he did absolutely everything, played from a young age and was a coach.

Born in Alcabre, he started as a footballer in Deportivo Galicia, then Arenas de Alcabre. “I was from pre-Benjamin to youth. Then, thanks to the agreement, I went to Bouzas Rapid and I came back,” he says. He played until he was 35, but then, although he was not president, he was already working as a shadow manager. “The one who was there gave me the power and I already had everything,” he recalls Therefore, taking over the presidency was the next step: “The years passed and I dedicated myself office footballas another says.

When the current Arenas de Alcabre was founded again, it was already part of it directive of the first regular meeting. It was in the family, because his parents were also related. But the key figure stands out for the path he followed in the entity, i.e Carlos López Fragueiro, Lugués, whose witness somehow collected. He always advised me, we have trophies with his name and he is our honorary president, he points out.

Currently, they can proudly boast that they have eleven federal teams of all categories, more than 200 children and between 30 and 40 coaches. But it took a long time to get here. “I have loved football all my life; first he plays, and then this second job off the field. But at the time, the problem was that if no one caught this, parish stay no sports activities for children, and that really annoyed me,” he explains.

At that time, in fact, there were not too many children and that number has multiplied to the one they are currently holding. In between, many headaches and sacrifices. “I put it in his time money from my pocket to clear the club of the debts it had. I got involved to the extent that I put in what little I had and now I see the results”, he celebrates. It encouraged him to try with all his might to keep the club from disappearing.

To this day, he attends training sessions and matches, has the final say in sports decisions and takes over administrative issues, such as subsidy or token processing. But not only that. “We always look to see if there is any problem: are there children’s boots, do we need material, do we need to buy balls, kits…”, he exemplifies. And another one of the questions that he considers the most important: «I worry join the board so we are all going in the same direction.

He is grateful to have a large group surrounding him and points out that, contrary to what some think, they work “completely altruistically, without any profit” and out of love for the club. “I don’t think many people know what it took for me to continue this. There are always those who think you came here to boss around or because you correspondsbut they don’t know the sleepless nights you spent or the problems you had,” he says. He insists that everything is going well now, but it came at a price a lot of effort that it has not escaped “more than one stick or criticism” which it diminishes.

The biggest reward for Crespo is that the club is doing well at the moment. “I like to be with children, talk to them, watch them play and have a good time. In addition, there were also promotions”, he adds regarding what is strictly sports. Nor does he hide, although he takes it with humor, that he encountered “someone else”. father from which it is better to escape”.

He, who used to go from house to house in the neighborhood “to look for money under stones”, claims that in his story it shines ” football reality, and not that television pays you thousands of euros”. And although he thought about leaving, he would only do so if there was a relay of guarantees, “and not someone who comes and rejects the job at the first opportunity”.

The president of Arenas de Alcabre also was a coach for the two youngest seasons, which are his weakness, but he does not continue because between the other tasks he performs in the club and work, there is not enough time for everything. He saw what they were like up close changed things, since the honorary president drove the children to the game in his own car, he says, to the changes in the perspective of the kids. “Now they tell you that they don’t go to that field, with that grass, or that they don’t play with those boots. I played with a ribbon on top if I had to,” he recalls.

But whatever happens, he’s been at the bottom of the canyon for years, spending hours and hours in it navia field where Arenas de Alcabre moved from the inauguration of the place, ten years ago. “I have people I trust who support me and believe in me. Little by little, we did it progress and we continue in it».