“I hope people don’t get angry but he’s my friend.” There wasn’t long until the Barcelona derby and Jofre Carreras had briefly abandoned the warm-up to talk to the TV. There on the touchline, talk inevitably turned to his former roommate, housemate and teammate Joan García, now in goal for their greatest rivals. Carreras’s answer was just about audible over all the noise and then he was off again: he had something else to do before it all started, accepting a shirt marking his 100th game for Espanyol. Behind them as club legend Rafa Marañón presented it, the team captains lined up for a photo of their own with the first Catalan to referee this fixture in 80 years and, way off to the left out of shot, García clapped. Like everything else he did, except actually play, he did so discreetly.
Joan and Jofre, both 24, have known each other “for as long as I can remember”, in Carreras’s words. Over four years, they shared a room at Espanyol’s residency on Carretera de Mataró in Sant Adrià del Besòs and then they shared an apartment. When García collected his award as Espanyol’s best player in 2023-24, and was handed a supply of sausages, Carreras also received an award – two different supporters’ clubs rewarding two different winners on the same day. When García started being noticed beyond Barcelona, Carreras declared his friend the world’s best. And when the summer heat got a bit much – and, boy, did it – García took refuge at Carreras’s. Now though they were opponents. And that, Carreras said, was “a bit strange”.
It was also, it turned out, decisive: the difference in a derby that became even more about García than it was always going to be. What Carreras saw then, others saw on Saturday night when an astonishing performance from the goalkeeper he grew up with led Barcelona to a 2-0 victory, somehow unmoved amid all the mayhem. “In the end, that’s football,” Carreras had said, and in the end it was.
Born in Sallent, 70km from Barcelona, García arrived at Espanyol’s residency shortly after his 15th birthday. Tall and daring, sometimes a little too daring, there was a touch of Casillas in his reflexes but with the physique and presence to dominate. Although he was as fast a learner as he was in the sprints where he left other keepers behind, it wasn’t always easy. There were two meniscus injuries. He had good goalkeepers ahead of him and early, isolated opportunities didn’t go well. His debuts, in 2021 in the cup and 2022 in the league, weren’t the kind you dream of. And yet, he would later say, it was probably better that way, a value in having errors to address and learning to live with them. Learning patience too.
When Manolo González took over, the best thing that happened to Espanyol in years was the best thing that could have happened to García too. That season in segunda he hadn’t played until March 2024; he played every game thereafter. Espanyol won promotion and in their first season back he was a revelation, salvation celebrated with the Espanyol badge brought to his lips.
At which point, enter Barcelona. García had been at Espanyol a decade and his family were members: he knew leaving was one thing, natural enough, but that leaving for them was something else entirely, unforgivable. Speculation grew, the pressure too. “He feels Espanyol and I don’t think he will go there,” González said. “I’m not saying I’d cut off my hand if he did, but almost.” Yet in mid-June García became the first player to cross the Diagonal since Igor Korneev 31 years ago, although these days it’s not so much crossing the Diagonal as heading up it, beyond the city along the B20 and off at exit 16A towards Tarragona. Barcelona paid the buyout clause, nothing Espanyol could do. “I have to say goodbye to my home since I was 15,” García said, insisting that he would always “respect what I leave behind”, proud of leaving Espanyol in primera. “I know it won’t be easy for everyone to understand,” he said, and he was right.
“Everyone chooses their path, what’s best for them,” Carreras said during Saturday’s warm-up and the money (€25m plus taxes) allowed Espanyol to renew Javi Puado’s contract, and keep Urko and Roberto, who were so vital in survival last season. Ty Dolan arrived too, and García’s replacement Marko Dmitrovic. Espanyol came into the derby in fifth having won five in succession. Which was one reason why Saturday’s meeting felt so big, a proper contest at last after two titles won and no games lost in 16 years at Espanyol, but the reason was García. Everything built around his return, the hostility supposedly awaiting him. “From love to hate, there’s often a single step,” El Mundo wrote. “More than a derby,” Sport called it, not exactly imaginatively. This, said Marca’s cover, was “a derby on fire”.
Espanyol had put up nets to ensure that any missiles didn’t reach their former player, and called for calm. “Everyone is waiting for us to screw it up,” González lamented, so don’t let them. He also said that he remembered the pig’s head thrown at Luís Figo, so maybe hold off on the lessons in morality. “We’re not going to be coming with bunches of roses,” Espanyol’s coach said. “That’s normal; that’s rivalry.” Instead, Barcelona awoke with Espanyol posters up at bus stops and metro stations: Blue and white Barcelona, Anti-cule zone, the pride of Barcelona, Fucking Bar$a. They came with fake dollar bills, “Judas” García printed on them. They came with banners: one showed a beheading, most were emblazoned with rats. They carried cuddly rodents. They whistled García’s every move and literally called for his head.
But García’s head is not for turning. However safe his hands and quick his feet, that might be the best part of him. Instead, he seemed to inhabit some place above the noise, the tension. “He’s a very calm guy; he prepared like always, very meticulous. He has so much confidence,” Jules Koundé said. García hadn’t said a word all week and didn’t now, yet he said it all. When Barcelona scored, Dani Olmo hitting a wonderful shot on 86 minutes and Robert Lewandowski adding a late second, he didn’t smile, didn’t react, but he had won.
The goals were fantastically set up by Fermin López but without García, Barcelona wouldn’t have got that far. A belting derby – the word “thanks” appeared 56 times in one 515-word report – was dominated by Espanyol, González proud of his team and his fans and unable to explain how they had lost. Except for, well, him. “Sorry, I’m not talking about Joan García,” he said, tired of having his words twisted. “What I think of Joan I’ve said here 50 times before.” What he had said was that just as Barcelona had Messi so Espanyol had García. And on Saturday night, for much of this season, that didn’t seem so far-fetched. His signing feels like a gamechanger, with 77% of shots stopped. Here, it was 100%. Seven from seven, five of them superb, on a night that was barely believable.
“Mother of God almighty, what a goalkeeper!” Lamine Yamal posted. “Spectacular,” Fermin called him. “He’s amazing,” Olmo said. He had come “dressed as Superman” El Mundo Deportivo claimed, pants on the outside and everything. “Super Joan,” said Sport’s cover. He was “from science fiction”, El Periódico claimed. Poor Roberto could only look lost. Against a normal keeper, he might have had a hat-trick. They had been playing 20 minutes when he was clean through the first time, García stopping him. When the striker escaped after an hour, he did it again, twisting and launching at his feet. There was a flash at the near post, a swoop towards the far post. Another save led to an incredible stop that doesn’t even count as his but might just be the best. Seeing he couldn’t reach the rebound, García shoved Gerard Martín in the back, sending his own central defender flying in to block.
Rayo Vallecano 1-1 Getafe, Celta Vigo 4-1 Valencia, Osasuna 1-1 Athletic Club, Elche 1-3 Villarreal, Espanyol 0-2 Barcelona, Sevilla 0-3 Levante, Real Madrid 5-1 Real Betis, Mallorca 1-2 Girona, Alavés 1-1 Oviedo, Real Sociedad 1-1 Atlético Madrid
But it was one from a Pere Milla header, shifting in the air, throwing his arms out and somehow pushing over from a yard, that will linger longest, as good as any stop you’ll see. “That save’s one of the most important and lovely this season,” Koundé said; even more eloquent were the reactions of three opponents. Dolan was already celebrating; Carlos Romero stood in disbelief, waggling his fingers like he had trapped them in a drawer; Milla shook his head, approached García and gave him a gentle fist bump. Respect, you bastard. Seen that somewhere before.
At the full-time whistle, sheet somehow kept clean, Dmitrovic – who made an astonishing save of his own – embraced him. “He’s a great kid,” the new Espanyol goalkeeper said. “He’s having a great season, even better than last year, which I didn’t know was possible. Another at this level and he’ll be the best in the world. I wish him all the luck in the world, except when we meet again.”
As the two goalkeepers pulled apart and García headed towards the tunnel where his former flatmate waited, Hansi Flick grabbed him in a bear hug. “We didn’t deserve this win, I’ll be honest,” Barcelona’s coach said. “I have to say thank you to Joan García. His body language, his confidence, it’s fantastic, he gives us positive energy. I know he appreciates a lot and doesn’t forget everything that happened here: Manolo trusted him. He’s playing for us now and it’s unbelievable.”
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Barcelona | 19 | 33 | 49 |
| 2 | Real Madrid | 19 | 24 | 45 |
| 3 | Villarreal | 17 | 18 | 38 |
| 4 | Atletico Madrid | 19 | 17 | 38 |
| 5 | Espanyol | 18 | 3 | 33 |
| 6 | Real Betis | 18 | 6 | 28 |
| 7 | Celta Vigo | 18 | 4 | 26 |
| 8 | Athletic Bilbao | 19 | -8 | 24 |
| 9 | Elche | 18 | 1 | 22 |
| 10 | Getafe | 18 | -9 | 21 |
| 11 | Sevilla | 18 | -5 | 20 |
| 12 | Osasuna | 18 | -3 | 19 |
| 13 | Alaves | 18 | -6 | 19 |
| 14 | Rayo Vallecano | 18 | -7 | 19 |
| 15 | Real Sociedad | 18 | -4 | 18 |
| 16 | Mallorca | 18 | -6 | 18 |
| 17 | Girona | 18 | -17 | 18 |
| 18 | Valencia | 18 | -13 | 16 |
| 19 | Levante | 17 | -9 | 13 |
| 20 | Oviedo | 18 | -19 | 12 |
