Alberto Serra
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Alberto Serra | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 In a football match in 1895, Alberto Serra appears standing, with his hands in his pockets, the first from the left. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 8th President of Catalan Football Federation | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 1909–1910 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Rafael Degollada | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Eugeni Beltri | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Alberto Serra Guixà (10 October 1870 – 28 July 1912) was a Spanish football pioneer and sports journalist, who is best known for writing and signing the first chronicle of a FC Barcelona match, which appeared on page 7 of La Vanguardia on 9 December 1899.[1] He also wrote and was director of the Los Deportes magazine, but it was in La Vanguardia where Serra exerted his greatest informative display, for almost twenty years, and where he managed to create an outstanding weekly section under the heading "Sports Sheet" in which he became a fervent disseminator of the regulations of football. He is considered "the dean" of sports reporters in Barcelona.[1]
As a player, Serra took part in some of the earliest Catalan clubs in existence such as Barcelona Football Club and Sociedad de Foot-Ball de Barcelona, serving both teams as a forward. He was a firm promoter of sports activity, so besides football, a sport to which he owes his career, he also practiced and wrote articles about other modalities such as rowing and fencing.[1] He was also a lawyer and municipal judge, and he even held the presidency of the Catalan Football Federation from October 1909 to 1910.[1]
Born in the then-independent municipality of Sarria on 20 October 1870. Serra began his sporting career with the practice of rowing and his first articles were published in the magazine of the Club Regatas de Barcelona. His first contact with football was in 1892, when the Englishmen James Reeves, the spokesman for the British members of Club Regatas (or British Club Regatas), approached the club's Catalan members to propose the idea of creating a well-organized football club.[2] At that time, football was a sport practically unknown in the city, so most ignored him, but Serra, a sports lover, decided to give it a try after being convinced by Reeves's enthusiasm and passion.[2] Together with Reeves and some other football pioneers in the city, such as George Cockram, the Morris brothers (Samuel and Enrique) and Henry W. Brown, they formed the Barcelona Football Club in late 1892.[2] Serra was the figurehead of the team's Catalan members who, together with him, were crucial in its success.[3]
This entity held the first known football match in the city, which was held at Hippodrome of Can Tunis on 25 December 1892. It remains unclear if he actually played in this match.[2] However, it is known that he played on 12 March 1893, in the historic match between a blue team captained by Mr. Cockram and a red one led by Reeves, representing the latter in a 1–2 loss, with both Blue goals coming from Catalans (Figueras and Barrié).[2] The photograph of these two sides just before the match is widely regarded as the oldest photo of a football team in Spain.[2] Moreover, this match was the subject of the first proper chronicle of the dispute of a football match, which appears in the newspaper La Dinastia on 16 March 1893, written by Enrique Font Valencia.[2] Serra played several friendly matches at Can Tunis and a few others at the Velódromo de la Bonanova between 1892 and 1895, the last of which with Sociedad de Foot-Ball de Barcelona, however, due to the little statistical rigor that the newspapers had at that time, the exact number of matches and goals he performed is unknown.[2]
Albert Serra daily day could begin by performing justice in his position as municipal judge of Sarrià, and end by dropping by the offices of La Vanguardia to collect his notes. And if he had a few hours, go to the port to row or swim