Sporting had great years in which they touched the League and the Cup, but did not reach them. In 78-79 they were second in the League, after Madrid; In 80-81 they reached the Cup final, only to lose to Barça, who had taken Quini, the scorer of two goals, from them. In the 81-82 final he repeated, against Madrid, in the pneumonia stadium, as Nuevo Zorrilla was known for the cold ball he played that night, unbecoming of the season. He also lost her.
But it can boast of being the only club that has an Oscar. He won it through the intermediary figure of one of his most accredited fans, José Luis Garci, who filmed in El Molinأ³n and at the Mareo facilities several scenes from Volver a starting, the first Spanish film to win an Oscar.
Antonio Ferrandis plays Antonio Miguel Albajara, a former Sporting player turned writer in exile, professor at Berkeley. He has just received the Nobel Prize in Stockholm when he unexpectedly returns to Gijأ³n to reunite with his first love (Elena, Encarna Paso), the landscapes of his childhood and his old friends, among them the endearing Roxu, José Bأ³dalo, now more dico and director of the club. He shows her his medical tests and receives confirmation that he has six months to live, the reason for his return in search of lost sensations.
The El Molinأ³n box records one of the scenes, taken in a real match, between Sporting and Atlأ©tico, Garci’s other team. Albajara sits in the box, between Roxu and the club president, Manuel Vega Arango, to whose left is Alfonso Cabeza, president of Atlأ©tico. Among the short shots are some real shots of the match, played on October 18, 1981, and which Sporting won 3-2. The match is followed by another scene, a tribute meal that the club offers to Albajara, which was filmed in the dining room of the Mareo facilities. Among the attendees, Sporting veterans such as Molinucu or Siأ³n stand out. In his speech, Roxu ponders his status as a footballer from Albajara; Then he will tell you that the truly good ones are those of now, especially Maceda and Ferrero.
That film would win the first Oscar for Spanish cinema on April 11, 1983, one of the most extraordinary news experienced by this country in those hectic years of the Transition. There was no shortage of controversy between those who doubted the film’s merit in achieving such an honor and those who only considered it deserved. Garci himself stated simply that his film was presented a bit on the rebound. There were La Colmena and Demonios in the garden, and those in favor of one for not voting for the other were inclined to start over.
honor kick
Six days after the award, Sporting received Atlético again, a curious coincidence. Once again, Garci’s two teams, devotions that came to him through his father’s path, an Asturian living in Madrid, where he was a goalkeeper for those who cut tickets at the old Metropolitano, where the film director opened his eyes to football with the Atlأ©tico’s silk forward: Juncosa, Vidal, Silva, Campos and Escudero. So, having just returned from Los Angeles, Garci traveled to Gijón to witness this new meeting between his two teams. On April 17, 1983, El Molinأ³n (today renamed in honor of the late Quini) presented a splendid entrance, both in the interest of the game and to celebrate that unexpected Oscar that Gijأ³n celebrated as his own thing, since the film, apart of the scenes recorded at the Sporting facilities and the condition of former player of the protagonist’s club, was filmed in many of the most characteristic corners of the city and Asturias. Garci came out to thunderous applause to the strains of Cole Porter Begin music from Beguine, he was photographed with both teams with the statuette in front of him and the Sporting players raised it like a trophy. A celebration worthy of a great title.
Finally, Garci took the kick-off, always with the statuette in his hand, and retired to the box to continue the game. It wasn’t even 20 months ago, so although the coaches were different (then Miera and Carriega, now Boskov and Luis), among the players there were most who repeated. The result was symmetrical: this time Atlأ©tico won 2-3, on a bad afternoon for the local goalkeeper Rivero.
Sporting lost the game, but who remembers now? He had won the one on the day of filming, but, above all, he had won an Oscar. Ah, that remains. Let’s see who can match it.
