BarcelonaThree matches. That’s what separates Barça’s hockey team from their 23rd European Cup. Two years later, the Catalans will once again compete in the quarter-finals of the Champions League. The ‘azulgranas’ will face Sporting of Portugal, in a single match, this Thursday (8 p.m.) in the final eight that will be played in Coimbra (Portugal). The ‘azulgranas’ have not lifted this title since the 2017-18 season. “We arrive very motivated. We are aware that it will be complicated, but it is a good opportunity to reach the semi-finals of the European Cup again and we will fight for it,” explains goalkeeper Carles Grau (Lloret de Mar, 1990) to El ARA. The Girona-born player will seek in Portugal the only title he is missing to complete an admirable record. “I have lost three Champions League finals, but at least I have been able to play them. I don’t want to obsess, but if we can win the title this week, much better,” he explains.
Grau came out of the blaugrana youth academy, where he coincided with Edu Castro, who was also his coach in the Catalan team upon returning to Palau after playing for clubs such as Liceo or Porto. “The demand at Barça is maximum and we have to perform to try to win all the titles and all the matches. I am very happy with the treatment we receive and we cannot complain. We have all the means to compete and be at the level of the Portuguese teams,” he assures. However, in Portugal there is increasingly more investment in hockey, as demonstrated by playing –for the eighth consecutive year– the final phase of the Champions League on Lusitanian territory. “Before it was the opposite, the Catalan teams and Liceo dominated; now it seems more the Portuguese. It would be good to bring the final phase to Catalonia, it would be exciting to compete with our people,” confesses the goalkeeper.
“The main difference between Spain and Portugal lies in the fact that there are several teams that can win the league there, while here the group of title contenders is smaller, but there isn’t that much of a difference”, states Grau, who adds that he hopes everything goes smoothly: “We have to have luck on our side to win a title and we hope this year will be ours”.
From the goal to the pharmacy
Carles Grau is the solution to all problems. In goal for Barça, he prevents goals from rivals, while in the future he wants to prevent infections in people at the pharmacy his mother has in Lloret. “I studied for my degree when I was at Barça in my first spell. I’m happy to have a career for when hockey ends and to continue with a more or less established life,” points out the Barça goalkeeper, who is already a pharmacist and admits that as soon as he stops playing, he will swap his stick for a lab coat.
He is the eldest of four brothers, Lluís –now retired–, Àlex –who plays for Maçanet–, and Marc –with whom he shares a locker room at Barça–. The four have always been clear that they had to combine sport with a career. “If you play for Barça you can make a living from hockey, but when it ends you have to have something else. If not, it’s impossible, we’re not footballers,” recalls Carles. Lluís is a physiotherapist and osteopath, while Àlex and Marc –they are twins– have studied dentistry. “I’ve shared a locker room with Marc for seven years, first at Liceo and now at Barça. If he does something wrong, you have more confidence to tell him than someone else. Between the two of us, we form that unit to try to be better players every day,” says the older brother.
The goalkeeper emphasizes that he is a family man. “My son also plays hockey and now I’m going to watch him train in Lloret,” he explains. Grau continues to come every day from Blanes, a town near his hometown, but throughout this time he has never lost the desire to continue adding titles. “When you stop being ambitious, your level drops and it would be impossible to compete. Everything I’ve achieved, I’ve earned. I have been ambitious and I will continue to be so until the last day I put myself in goal,” he concludes.
