From grandparents to grandchildren: passion for Valencia CF

Behind every football player there is a person with a family, who encourages and pushes him, with whom he shares his joys and finds support in difficult times. And in that family, grandparents often play an essential role. They are the ones who mark the path to follow and who often stay with them in the day to day training sessions and matches.

"The first one I played football with was my grandfather Antonio. It was in Canet, in the gardens of the promenade, between two palm trees we made the goal and I would shoot at him". At that moment it all began with Javi Guerra, who last Sunday played his first minutes in LaLiga with Valencia CF at Mestalla. A day he will remember with special emotion, although the night could not be rounded off with a victory.

"He has always coming everywhere, he was known as Guerra's grandfather" Guerra recalls.

Antonio was unable to see Javi Guerra play at Mestalla this time, and it was not until the following day that he was able to congratulate him. "Now I can die peacefully," he told him with a smile before continuing his work in the kitchen, where, among other things, he always prepares Javi the meticulous diet that players in professional football have to follow.

Javi Guerra, who at 19 years of age is still making strides at Valencia CF and at the Valencia CF Academy, aspires to play professional football.

Grandfather Miguel did not know it, but he was also decisive in the passion for football and Valencia CF of another young promise of the VCF Academy. César Tárrega grew up in a Valencianista environment, listening to the stories of the butcher's shop that his grandfather Miguel had in Mislata and in which the Valencia CF crest was never missing, he even tore it off the wall to take it with him when they moved the business.

César Tárrega's grandfather was loyal to Mestalla, year after year, season after season. He was part of a Valencianista peña in tribute to Antonio Puchades, the legendary midfielder from Sueca who came to share table and tablecloth with the peñistas, César's grandfather proudly told the family.

Miguel's grandpa was in his heart and mind when he debuted with the first team last season in Copa del Rey match. He recently renewed his contract with Valencia CF and signed the documents just on the anniversary of his death.

Simón Luca is a left back from Cantabria who joined VCF Mestalla this season. He fulfilled the dream of his grandfather Manolo without planning it.

"My mother always told me that my grandfather was very much a Valencia CF fan, that, although he lived in Madrid, he had to go to Mestalla at least once every year. And she has always passed that on to me," says the player from Cicero. 

In honor of his grandfather Manolo's legacy, Simón was given a Valencia CF shirt as a child. He could not have imagined that years later he would arrive at the Valencia CF Academy and wear that shirt, playing an important role in the B team.