Walking the streets of Valencia, there is no doubt that football is an obssession. It is a way of life, a mania, a religion even.
The city’s main team, Valencia Club de Futbol, is a fiery mass of energy. The club radiates passion, yet the fervour can turn to fury. The fans show complete dedication to the cause and spit venom at anyone who is against their cause.
And that was what Jun Tan felt.
From April 23 to 26, the founder of Junpiter Futbol visited one of Spain’s biggest clubs, experienced a La Liga away game with Los Che and mixed with the populace, feeling their anguish over a Singaporean’s ownership of the football team they hold so dear.
And the club’s soul and spirit have left quite an impression on the journalist.
Jun said: “My knowledge of the club was built up via social media and reading news articles over the years. This trip is not only an eye opener, it totally changed my perspective of European football. I felt the history. I experienced the passion. The club has just gained another fan.”
Even making this trip happen was an adventure filled with close calls.
Jun had planned to visit the 104-year-old club to witness and document its match day atmosphere, visit the club’s facilities as well as tour the historic city to get a feel of its culture and vibe. Of course, the club has a Singapore connection as it has been owned by businessman Peter Lim since 2014.
After getting permission to visit the club, conduct interviews with selected players and soak in the sights and sounds of Spain’s third largest city, he was all packed and ready to go.
But a few days before departure, Valencia were beaten 2-1 at lowly Almeria, leaving Ruben Baraja’s men 17th in the table and facing relegation. The journalist received a call from the club’s communications department, requesting that he postpone his trip as the team would like to focus on La Liga survival.
With so much resentment towards Singaporeans bubbling, safety is now a concern given the hostility . And that is not being kiasu or kiasi.
But Jun, a seasoned journalist and photographer who had personally witnessed the intensity of Persib Bandung’s Gelora Bandung Lautan Api Stadium, believes that surviving such a cauldron of hate will make the trip even more memorable.
“I have experienced some nasty encounters while covering football especially overseas,” he said. “But it’s really because of all these sensitivities and hostile experiences, it makes the trip more unforgettable.”
With flight and hotel bookings secured and payments made, all the planning and scheduling will be wasted. Over the next few days, there was a lot of frantic communication between both sides, still trying to make the assignment happen.
Jun recalled: “Things kept changing for our trip as the club was undergoing some rough times. Less than a month out, we were actually advised to postpone my trip as the management decided to cut off all interaction between the team and the media so that the players could focus on getting the results. As we had already paid for all flight and train tickets, postponement was definitely not possible.”
“We proceed with the risk of not getting any access to the team. Things didn’t get better, we only discovered there was a change to the LaLiga match schedule slightly less than a week out from our departure date. We were to miss our one and only LaLiga match at Mestalla for the trip!”
“After the club learned about that, immediately they made arrangement to pick us up on the day of our arrival at airport. The next thing we knew, we were on our way (2hrs drive) to Elche to catch Valencia’s away match! After the match, they sent us back to Valencia. Just couldn’t express how thankful we were towards their effort to make this a ‘complete’ trip. On top of that, the club also granted us a few exclusive one-on-one interviews with both the women’s and men’s team too.”
Finally, the green light arrived. Jun was to fly off to Valencia and travel south down the Mediterranean coast immediately upon arrival to Elche.
There, Valencia earned a 2-0 win. The team’s first victory in four games lifted Baraja’s men out of the drop zone and set them on course for a late rally with three wins and three draws in their final eight games, including beating Real Madrid 1-0, to stay in the top flight.
Although Los Che won, the fans have another war to fight. Sitting amongst Valencia’s 1,350 travelling fans at the Estadio Manuel Martinez Valero, Jun saw how the Valencia devotees held yellow signs that read “Lim Go Home” – A clear message to the owner, who ironically is back home in Singapore.
And his appearance in the away stand created interest, with some supporters coming forward to ask him which part of Asia he is from.
Jun decided not to hide, explaining that he is indeed from the land that is the source of their grief.
He said: “Because we have heard so much about the displeasure (fans), we were not expecting to meet some of the friendliest guys at the Stadium to be honest. We were mentally prepared. Yes, we did have some fans shouting at us at the Stadium, but we had also met some friendlies at the grandstand too.
“Some of the fans were indeed shocked when they knew we were from Singapore but they quickly realised that we were equally as passionate as them cheering for Valencia. We tried our best to communicate with them to let them know that we were supporters of the club too. I think they appreciated our effort and probably guts (to be there in person!)”
Valencia is a city that adopted the bat as its symbol as it is thought the winged mammal brought the Spanish luck as they retook the city from the Moors during the Crusades. Lim’s takeover nine years ago was supposed to signal a revival for the club.
A billionaire just like Bruce Wayne who counts Cristiano Ronaldo, David Beckham and Jorge Mendes as his friends. Surely, Valencia have found their Dark Knight.
The reality is much more complicated than that.
Valencia had gone through 12 managers since Lim’s acquisition of the club, averaging two tacticians per season. The club had gone through wild swings on the pitch, from winning the Copa Del Rey in 2019, qualifying for the Champions League thrice (2015, 2018 and 2019) and reaching the Europa League semi-final (2019), to relegation scraps in 2017 and this year.
Still, even during tough times, Valencia still manages an average home crowd of 40,000 this season.
“It was really quite a shocking sight to witness how the particular group of football fans demonstrating their displeasure towards Peter Lim. There were easily a few thousands of fans holding “Lim Go Home” posters. It was highly visible even from far as the A3-size posters that they were holding throughout the match were in bright yellow. Next, I chanced upon an advertisment billboard on a random roadside. It’s an advert by a dental clinic displaying in Spanish. It caught my attention as I could recognise the word Peter Lim. Hence, I googled, and it said, “Peter Lim can’t make you smile, but we can”!
Regardless of the difficult circumstances, Jun feels that the club deserves credit for opening its doors to him.
On top of tours of the Mestalla Stadium and the Paterna training ground, exclusive interviews were arranged with American attacking midfielder Yunus Musah and two of Spain’s elite players – defender Maria Jimenez, an UEFA Under-19 Women’s Championship winner, and forward Fiamma Benitez, a FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup gold medallist. And Jun is grateful for this experience, saying: “There are plenty of media visiting the club, we are definitely not the only one. But to experience what we have experienced at Valencia, we are thankful to the club.
“A special mention should go to their media team – They went all out to make our visit an unforgettable one. We have learned so much more on the club. As a Valencia football fan, especially as a Singaporean, honestly we feel the connection even more now. Amunt Valencia!”
And there wraps up another Junpiter Futbol adventure. Perhaps it is too literal to believe that football is more important than life and death. Valencia does come close to that.
The trip to Valencia is made possible by Ace Global Accountants and Auditors, a trusted and reliable Accounting and Business Consultancy based in Singapore.
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