The DANA storm tragedy in the Valencian Community has seen plenty of anger about the handling of the disaster towards politicians, but above all it has seen plenty of solidarity from across Spain. Football has been no exception to that.
On Monday, Barcelona announced that President Joan Laporta had been in contacts with he mayors of Paiporta, Benetusser and Catarroja, three of the worst-affected areas of the country. Over half of the 217 confirmed deaths came from Paiporta, and Laporta offered Barcelona’s economic support and help with rebuilding the towns after the damage. Their foundation will be involved too, and have already held collections for the Valencian Community.
La grada de animación del Real Madrid se solidariza con el pueblo valenciano: “Valencia somos todos” pic.twitter.com/JqSPitB5r8
— Nacho Peña (@NachitoTV) November 5, 2024
Over the weekend, a minute of silence was held in La Liga over the weekend before the games, and the same has been happening for the European games this week too. In particular, the silence before Girona’s clash with PSV Eindhoven was particularly striking.
🖤 Minuto de silencio antes del PSV – Girona en memoria de las víctimas de la DANA.#UCL #LaCasaDelFútbol pic.twitter.com/XF4TWg6jPM
— Fútbol en Movistar Plus+ (@MovistarFutbol) November 5, 2024
Cadena SER report that beyond the €1m donation that Real Madrid made to the recovery efforts, Vinicius Junior made the effort to raise money amongst the squad privately, and then donate more money from the players.
🚨🇪🇸 JUST IN: According to @relevo, Marcos Llorente has traveled in secret, with permission from Atletico Madrid, to help the people of Valencia. He left today at 5 AM in his car and brought a van with various supplies, along with two other vans filled with nearly 400 pressure… pic.twitter.com/HbA3g5HqnD
— Atletico Universe (@atletiuniverse) November 6, 2024
Meanwhile Atletico Madrid sent 55 tonnes of materials and aid collected at the Metropolitano to the Valencian Community, in an operation involving 25 volunteers, a van, six lorries and the team bus. All traveled early this week to distribute the materials, and Marca say another four lorry loads will be sent later this week.
Fermín: “I hope I can stay at Barça for many more years and be able to repay the trust they gave me when I renewed my contract."
— barcacentre (@barcacentre) November 5, 2024
Atletico star Marcos Llorente went way above and beyond too. Relevo explain that he obtained permission from the club to travel to the region himself, where he left at 05:00am in order to provide what he could to those affected, loading his car with useful and requested materials.
“From the outside it looks like chaos. We don’t really know what is happening. People upload videos to social networks, they prohibit them from entering, they they aren’t able to pick up their things… From the outside we see that it is chaos in terms of organisation because everyone wants to help, and everyone is getting involved.”
In his car were nearly 400 pressurised spray cleaners, each costing about €460 – a total cost of around €180k. Llorente is missing their Champions League clash with Paris Saint-Germain this evening due to a muscle injury, hence he was given permission to spend his Wednesday helping with the recovery effort. His effort is one of many that have warmed the heart from Spanish football over the last week, at a trying time in Spain.
