“We went to see ‘Surprise, Surprise’ by Steven Seagal, Norma Duvall and us” | Relief

In just half an hour, Pedro José Lorenzo Galan (Torremejia, November 19, 1967) depicts football of yesteryear: “We were promoted to the First Division with a coaching staff of two people, the first coach and the second”. His series of anecdotes – “It makes me angry because there are many things I no longer remember” – reconstructs the history of Extremadura. The club, Almendralejo’s slogan, has died twice (2006 and 2020). Now the owners, “who have nothing to do with what we knew until now,” are trying to restore it under the name CD Extremadura (the third in its history: CF Extremadura and Extremadura UD).

Because most football fans know about the existence of Almendralejo in Extremadura (original).. In a city of just over 30,000 people, the club has more than 8,000 members. The club played in the First Division for two years under the leadership of Rafa Benitez, built the stadium in a month and a half, and its presentation as a First Division team took place on the “Albero field”. It even made the news Antenna 3 and he gave a “surprise to an elderly woman” in Isabel Gemio’s program “Sorpresa, surprise”: “She is, of course, from Extremadura, like us.”

Pedro Jose: “Physical training? 20-25 minutes of running and a lot of squats”

Pedro José is as you see him: simple, kind and normal. Half an hour is enough to realize this. The captain of the defunct Extremadura football club still has a sparkle in his eyes when he remembers his team’s most golden era. He arrived in the 1986/87 season with Extremadura in the third division: “I spent four years in this category: six in the second category B, six in the second category A and two years in the first. After that, I will play for Merida for one year, in the third division, five for Imperia and retire from football at 42 years old.

“.

Because? For Extremadura. “Juan Marrero, the team coach, calls me second coach.: “No one is better than you.” They have just been transferred to the second group “B”.

On June 2, 1996, they were relegated to the First Division in Albacete: “They gave us 19 corners, but we maintained a 1-0 lead and drew in the last minute.” At that time, their players were owed three months. “It was either ascension, salvation; not rising, disappearing. We had a lot of problems, but we knew the time was right, there were options, we were promoted, we had coach Josue Ortuondo, who was an impressive manager for us, and we managed to pull ourselves together and move on. forward.”

There were only five Extremadurans in this team: Felix, Jose Cortes, Ito, Jose Luis and Pedro Jose. “Imagine, many lived here with their families… there were very difficult moments. AFE was not as close as it is now. There were meetings, but nothing came of it.“Remembers Pedro José, who prefers to keep the most difficult moments of his historic team secret.

They were promoted without a coaching staff, only the coach and his deputy:”Physical fitness? Twenty or twenty-five minutes of continuous running and a lot of squats. There were even those who smoked. “For example, Quique Estebarans would take cigarettes, go to the locker room and light a cotton swab so that he wouldn’t smell of tobacco.”

Caption for Antena 3: “They gave us 1 billion pesetas”

They rose up and built the Francisco de la Guera stadium in a month and a half.. “We passed by here from time to time and saw that everything was very advanced. In fact, the presentation was made in the sports center, on a clay Albero field. Now there is artificial grass, but it’s all made of grass. The stands at the top were full of people, incredible, I have a poster of the albero field,” recalls Pedro José.

“If you look at the locker rooms before… they looked like a cave.. “One of those old tunnels… it was a dream,” he adds. The club became sad and he signed a contract. Antenna 3 -“I don’t know if they gave us 1 billion pesetas for promotion to the first division.“-. At the time, they and Canal+ shared television rights. An agreement that led them to “Sorpresa, Surprise”.

“First we went to BRAND and then Antenna 3 News. We appear on the midday news. And this week we went to the “Sorpresa, Surprise” program. We went there to surprise an elderly woman. That day they took Steven Seagal, Norma Duval and Extremadura.“, laughs Pedro José.

“We were there for five hours in the program, got up to serve and that’s it. They always came: “Quickly, quickly”. We got a call… we were there for five hours live,” he continues.

Two seasons in the First Division, Benitez, Mourinho and an ovation in San Mamés

Extremadura Football Club made its debut against Hercules in Alicante and lost 2–1. It took eight games to win: 2:1 against Victor Fernandez’s Zaragoza. They signed four Argentines – Basualdo, Montoya, Alejandro Dure and Silvani. “Of course, in the first game we will meet Vigo and win 0-1,” adds Pedro José. However, in the end they dropped one point. Rafa Benitez, who would later coach Tenerife, Valencia, Liverpool, Inter, Chelsea…, took the reins of the team and they returned to the First Division. But they fell again. Again. For one point.

Since then, Pedro José remembers San Mamés: “We went out to warm up and the field was almost empty. We went to the locker room, after 10 minutes, while the coach was telling you the last things, we went out onto the field and into the center of the field and “It was the biggest ovation they’ve ever given us.”

The fall begins. BF Extremadura is losing categories. To this day, Pedro José is still searching for a logical explanation for this disaster. “I experienced this twice, with two different instructions, as a coach and as a player. And I don’t know what’s wrong with these people. I don’t know what happens when you’re at the top, at the top, that’s how it should be, because you know how to manage everything well, but no. When it seems like you have more money, that’s when you do the worst. Perhaps more greed,” he replies.

A few days before contacting Pedro José, he signed a contract as manager of the new Extremadura team. “I come back because I really like what I see, it seems to look different,” he admits. CD Extremadura is currently playing in the 14th group of the Third Division and is in fifth place..

The conversation drags on and Rodrigo Moran, the club’s press officer and the man who facilitates the meeting between Pedro José and Relevo, appears, and Manu Mosquera, former footballer and another club legend.

They say goodbye to the pearl: “There is a joke about Bobby Robson. Bobby Robson came with Mourinho as a translator,” they imagine. “They came with Barça and spent more than a kilometer driving into Almendralejo, saying when they get to the city, when they get to the city. And they ended up here, at the corner of the stadium and the bus. the guy told them: “Don’t be annoying, the stadium is here.” And they say: “They didn’t know that they were coming, that they came… They were in the city and did not know that they had arrived in Almendralejo.“.