Rubén Uría (Madrid, 1975) was on the verge of not finishing writing this book. ‘120 stories of Atlético de Madrid’ (Corner), his fifth, his second on the red and white team (‘From dead to champion’, Chronicles). A book that covers the 121 years of red and white history from the general through the particular: the detail, the anecdote. In 336 pages that ooze Atlético. And precisely for this reason he finished it: because it was with the help of his father, Manolo, that Rubén arrived at the Calderón and joined Atleti and, although his death halfway through the manuscript was a blow (“getting to write again cost me a lot”), the sadness, the nostalgia, the fact that I could no longer comment on the games with him, at Atleti, also a promise What did he do? He pushed him. “I promised him that I was going to start and finish it,” he says this afternoon in a taxi on the way to the FNAC in Callao, in Madrid, with his phone ringing without stopping, interrupting call by call, message by message. But this afternoon, from the third amphitheater, Manolo would smile. His son in the bookstore’s assembly hall presenting his fulfilled promise to the public. At his side, Fran Guillén as driver. Before him, a full audience, with dozens of people who did not want to miss it. With the complete book in your hands. Very close to the heart. And wherever the shield is always carried.
Why should all Atlético de Madrid fans read ‘120 stories from Atlético de Madrid’?
It is a go-to book for every athletic library. It contains its 120 years of history, with a nice and fun anecdote for each year of life. Enjoyable, didactic and, above all, very easy to read to make a memory of the entire history of Atleti. From the 30s, 60s, 70s, much of the present, last decade.
While he was writing he received a hard blow: his father died of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)…
When I was halfway through. Getting back to writing was complicated.
Didn’t it help you disconnect?
Of course, but it was difficult for me to get back on, with all the pain I had. But once I got it, it helped me keep my head busy and not think about what I was missing. I had promised him that I was going to start it and finish it and so I did (smile sad).
Your book has, in fact, everything about your father, because he was the one who made you join Atlético, right?
Yes. I am a member of Atleti because of my father, like what they say: “From fathers to sons.” He took me when I was little to the Calderón to see a Madrid match, when it was free, and that stuck in my mind. The field, the pads, all red, for life now. Without him I wouldn’t have been part of Atleti, of course, he took me.
“It has been very difficult to choose between anecdotes about Luis, Kiko and Futre because they each had a hundred or so”
Of all the anecdotes, which one did you not know or which one surprised you the most?
I had most of them in my head because I am almost 50, others I have remembered and some I discovered while writing the book. The one about Gil’s payment to Futre with the yellow Porsche or the day Manolo was arrested doing his military service, the visit to the hospital for paraplegics in Toledo that Kiko told me about. There are many anecdotes but two are very marked. The one with the yellow Porsche and one that they told me about Luis that I had never heard and that is about a dialogue with Santos Ovejero in which he told him: “The coaches must have been a bit of actors” and then there was a fight with Futre…
It took you a year and a half to write it after many, many conversations with veterans and legends of the club. Was it difficult for you to choose them? I imagine he has left many out.
Yeah (laugh). I found it very enjoyable and fun. You talked to a former player, you asked them for an anecdote and they told you ten. I’ve spent all my time rewriting things I already had by telling myself new nuances. It has been very difficult to choose between anecdotes about Luis, Kiko and Futre because they had a hundred or so each.
When you announced in February that your book was going to go on sale on April 25, it became the number 1 best-selling sports book on Amazon… just from pre-sale reservations… How did you feel about that?
That was tremendous! The publisher called me to tell me. I thought it couldn’t be reserved if it wasn’t for sale and it became number 1…
But you are one of the great red and white voices of this country, something increased with ‘Club Uría’ on your Twitch channel, where every day you do hours and hours of information about Atlético…
I’ve been with the channel for nine months, like a birth (laugh). Yesterday we broke a record, 800 people on Twitch and 400 on YouTube, a total of 1,200. In two months we already have more people than Madrid…
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