Vice-President Carles Vilarrubí attends prize presentation held at the Warsaw Book Fair, and in which sixty U12 children took part
FC Barcelona’s vice-president for International and Institutional Relations, Carles Vilarrubí, has presented the prizes for the first FCBEscola Writing Competition that was held at the Warsaw Book Fair that is currently taking place in the Polish capital. Barça, which took part in the literature display in conjunction with the Ramon Llull Institute, has a very important FCBEscola soccer school in Warsaw, with more than 650 players and twelve U12 teams, and the competition was aimed at them.
Sixty children aged between 10 and 11 years took part in the contest, where they had to write stories about a player from the club’s history.
First prize went to Szymon Mlynarcyk, for a story about Xavi Hernández called Marzenie (Dream), who wins a trip to Barcelona along with an adult companion, plus the chance to go to a game and get a shirt signed by Messi, Neymar and Suárez.
Second prize went to young Belgian Ward Lambrecht for The Net Breaker, which was about Paulino Alcántara, and who wins a shirt signed by the trident and new boots.
Third prize was for a story about Johan Cruyff by Stanislaw Bienkowski, who also gets a signed shirt. All of the entrants also receive a book about Messi in return for their efforts.
The prize ceremony took place at the Literary Sofa Space at the National Stadium, Warsaw, where the fair is being held, and was attended by Carles Vilarrubí, in representation of the Club; Jordi Sierra i Fabra, a Catalan writer who specializes in children’s books; Enric Daví, director of the FCBEscola project in Warsaw; and Tomasz Wisniowski, reporter and host of the event.
On Thursday, FC Barcelona played a starring role at the fair. The vice-president for International and Institutional Relations, Carles Vilarrubí, attended the inauguration of the Warsaw Book Fair and visited the city of Barcelona’s stand, where he met the Polish Minister for Culture, Piotr Glinski, with whom he attended a screening of the documentary film Josep Suñol: un crit valent. Vilarrubí ended his day by taking part in a debate about football and literature.
Carles Vilarrubí, vice-president of International and Institutional Relations:
“It was an amazing response. We surpassed expectations with 60 entrants, and also by the quality of the entries. The maxim is for our schools to not only generate the best athletes, but also to be a source of culture, and we have seen that here, where there is an important relationship between books and sport”
Enric Daví, director of FCBEscola project in Warsaw:
“We designed the competition for the children born between 2004 and 2005, and asked them to write about an important figure in our club’s history, which meant they had to do some research into the club that they play for. There was a wide range of stories, with some surprises because they wrote about such players as Paulino Alcántara, Kubala and Maradona, who these children have not been able to see even on YouTube, and there was even one about Oriol Tort. It was a pleasure to read these stories and very difficult to choose the winners.