It is not a claim, nor a legend, and certainly not a conclusion drawn from the data available to Espanyol from members and fans. It may even be that it is simply a sensation that is definitely verifiable, never denied and less secretive, and has been ever present in one of the most modern cities in the country’s Region 43 since Parliament passed it in May. Olost never hid the allegiance of many of his football fans to the blue and white club or his rivalry with Barça supporters.
There isn’t even the Penya Blanc-Blava del Lluçanès, but it is the “Penya Blanc-Blava d’Olost i comarca” that brings together the devotees of neighboring towns like Prats and Perafita. The list of affiliated parakeets — not the total number of parakeets — is 59 in a town of about 1,200. There were better days when membership was close to a hundred, especially when membership passed from father to son just like the land was inherited, nothing to do with today where kids join winning teams and it’s difficult to be loyal to someone relegated to the second division.
The Center d’Estudis d’Opinió (CEO) published a poll last April according to which only 3.1% of Catalans have sympathy for Espanyol. 75.4% would be from FC Barcelona and 11.7% from Madrid while 1.9% would be from Girona. The CEO’s conclusions can hardly be applied to Olost. The Lluçanès parakeets have no complexes and, without discussing whether they are a minority or how many there are, identify themselves with the famous slogan “la força d’un sentiment” associated with the figure of journalist Manuel Fanlo.
Olost has always had a clear storyteller – not a story like Barça – who spread the Perica faith, regardless of the team’s sporting situation, the club’s ownership and even its company name, whether in Sarrià, Montjuïc or in Cornellà-El Prat. Today it’s called Òscar Pitarch, it used to be called Santiago Arboix and a while ago it was called Jaume Met Sala. Oral tradition also speaks of figures such as Joan Malaret. In any case, the common thread was the Serrat dynasty.
“Many of us in the family have always loved football, both as players and spectators, and also football fields, especially the nearby and popular ones, like the one that used to be at the entrance to Olost,” explains Albert Serrat. “And of course the connection between the Serrats and Espanyol is historical. Although it was never questioned, the militancy was more or less intense depending on the time and circumstances,” he concludes, later noting that he was a supporter of his first cousin Adjutori Serrat, that solid left-back who played for Valladolid, Valencia, Hércules, Sabadell and Barça. “I’ve seen him play in different areas, including at Fabra i Coats and at the Camp Nou,” adds Albert.
Tori Serrat i Giró (Olost, 1955), educated in the Lacambra youth and Spanish youth champion with Barça, also player of the amateur team and the Barça subsidiary, never denied his parakeet family while boasting of his culé militancy and his admiration for the teachings of Laureano Ruiz. He was certainly the region’s most important footballer, along with Miki Martínez, a midfielder from Prats de Lluçanès who made his debut for Espanyol on February 9, 2006 against Villarreal. We should also not forget Ton Serrat, a well-known professional in football and in Lluçanès.
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The Serrats have always had a lot of character and especially a parakeet profile since they ran Bar La Reforma rather than Café Sport. Football rivalry in inland Catalonia at the time, before and after the civil war, was as strong in some Barcelona neighborhoods as it was in Lluçanès, most of whose clubs were founded in the 1920s. Parakeet fans like Santiago Arboix kept recounting the blue and white line-up: “The goalkeeper was Trías, Teruel and Elías played in defence; Rovira and Llimós were regulars in midfield and up front were Mercadé, Jorge, Chas, Olivas and Mas.”
The 90-year-old Arboix does not forget the names of ten of his idols, because “in those years, the early forties, we had good teams, we competed against each other and there was a sporting dispute with Barça.” Josep and Daniel Sánchez Llibre linked, carried the Espanyol flag for many years.
However, the mood soured in 1969 with the “Matesa case” and the fall of Juan Vilá Reyes, when Espanyol claimed to be the opponent of Barça, who were much more interested in the rivalry with Madrid. “It was a crucial moment and, as is usual with parakeets, it went wrong,” admits Óscar Pitarch, candidate in the 1986 presidential election, which Antonio Baró won. As well as being an accredited blue and white partner, Pitarch is also a successful coach at Poble Sec and an employee at Banca Catalana who moved from Barcelona to Vall d’en Bas before settling in Olost.
Status as deputy mayor on the ERC two-term list explains his integration into the city and his activism as a parakeet is confirmed in every game, always ready to lead the caravan of fans that travels to the field – “I liked going to Montjuïc” – reconciling the fate of his team, emotional slave of the Dolphins (José Maria, Re, Rodilla, Amas and Marcial). Pitarch, who is equally passionate about cycling and has even been director of the Volta, is the blue and white headliner in Lluçanès and the link to Cornellà-El Prat.
The rise of the Spanish leaders of Olost can be explained by the various events held in the city, attended by figures such as N’Kono, Lauridsen or Marañón. Even the blue and white first team played a friendly against Olost on August 15, 1963. It wasn’t the only team to remember Espanyol in the region since its veteran side faced Pradenc in 2003. The Fusté family had a lot to do with the event, linked to Prats as much as Espanyol – Josep was a popular president and Anna Maria was director of Francesc Perelló and Sánchez Free.
The Fustés are real parakeets, as are the Serrats and, of course, Arboix and Pitarch, as well as Gabriel Rodenas, the Perafita parakeet battering ram. “We don’t give up, and certainly not when the club needs us like this,” concludes Pitarch himself. It is not known how many, but there are many and lore documents them; You won’t be the one to doubt that Olost is surely the city with the most parakeets in Catalonia.
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