The lowdown on Unió Esportiva Olot

FC Barcelona’s first friendly of the preseason is against Olot (Wednesday 7.00pm CEST, live worldwide on Barça TV+). Here’s the lowdown on the lower league club that’s celebrating its centenary this year.

Where are they from?

Olot is a town of around 35,000 people that lies about 50km outside of Girona in the foothills of the Catalan Pyrenees. It is particularly known for its stunning natural surroundings, including four volcanoes.

The history

The town’s first football games were played in 1902, arranged by Joaquim Peris de Vargas, who was president of FC Barcelona from 1915-15). A military-man who spent his summers in in Olot, he was a close friend of Joan Gamper, and in 1912 he invited the Barça founder to join him on a holiday in Olot. They spent the time establishing a solid team, ready for their first ever game in September of that year against none other than FC Barcelona, including a very young Paulino Alcántara, the team’s first real superstar.

That club only lasted three years. Although the modern-day Unió Esportiva Olot grew out of those developments, it wasn’t officially founded until 1921, and Wednesday’s game forms part of its 100^th anniversary celebrations.

Curiously the club originally wore a blaugrana strip modelled on Barça’s, but under the Franco dictatorship, they were forced to switch to white. They now wear red shirts with blue shorts.

The club’s original crest also had a very similar design to that of Barça’s, but that too had to be changed under fascist rule, and the current design is very different.

Form guide

UE Olot has spent its entire history in the lower leagues, playing most seasons in the old Third Division (fourth tier) but often dropping much lower. The last decade saw them climb to their highest level ever, the third tier Division 2B, but following the restructure of the pyramid, they started 2021/22 in the fifth tier Tercera División RFEF, two levels beneath Barça B.

Manresa topped the division, but Olot successfully negotiated the playoffs to earn a head-to-head with Tenerife B for a place in this season’s Segunda División RFEF. They won 1-0 after extra time.

The team

The club has developed a policy of only fielding players raised within the youth systems of Catalan speaking regions.

Under current coach Manix Mandiola, the squad is entirely amateiur but does feature some players with previous experience as professionals, including defender Alan Baró (Melbourne Victory and Central Coast Mariners in Australia), midfielders Eloi Amagat (Girona and New City in MLS) and Héctor Simón (Espanyol), and striker Jordi Xumetra (Elche, Levante and Zaragoza).

The ground

The Estadi Municipal holds 4,000 spectators and is expected to be a sell-out for this game. It has a natural grass pitch that according to an unverified legend was designed to be the exact same size as Barça’s field at the time, Les Corts. The first ever game at the ground after it opened in 1955 was played between the Olot and Barça youth teams.

Olot’s training ground, Royalverd, is famed for the quality of its grass, which has been used at such stadiums as San Mamés (Athletic Club), RCDE Stadium (Espanyol) and the Wanda Metropolitano (Atlético Madrid).

Head to head

Olot have been regular opponents of Barça B over the years, but although there have been ten friendlies with the FC Barcelona senior team in the past, this will be the first since a 3-1 win for Barça in 1980, when Helenio Herrera was in charge and enjoyed scheduling midweek friendlies against local opposition for his players.

Olot's ground was also recently visited by the veterans from the Barça Players Group (see picture above).