Joan Josep Vallejo Agustí plays defender for the Dutch football team Lunteren. He is a bit of a rough player, a little bit like Carles Puyol. He begins to laugh when the subject is brought up. Joan Josep Vallejo Agustí is well aware that his playing style is a bit rough. The imposing figure of the 22-year-old defender who plays for third division Lunteren is just as scary as the last yellow card he got. Last Saturday, against Elsweide (1-7 win), he was sent off ten minutes before the end. Before that, in four games, he received fewer than three yellow cards, “and the only game without a card, I played only for fifteen minutes,” Vallejo Agusti said. “I was suspended for one game. Saturday the coach warned me. I need to calm down in the field. As a defender, it is important to be strong and get the upper hand on your opponent, but you cannot get many cards. I really need to keep that in mind.”
Until a few months ago, the Barcelona-born Vallejo Agustí never heard of Lunteren. Why would he have? The defender was studying business and marketing in Texas, where he also played for his college team. As the football league in the United States goes only from summer until December, he thought he would continue his studies in Europe and he would try to find a club to play with. Thanks to a mutual contact between him and Lunteren trainer Amir Hashemi, he started playing for the team.
On March 9, against Redichem, he wore the yellow-black jersey for the first time. After that, he said, “I arrived to Holland in late January, I have missed a lot of practices, but I'm in good shape now. So it did not surprise me that I now have a place in the starting team. All my efforts have paid off. Soccer here is pretty much the same as in Texas. I am learning a lot from Jeroen Gaasbeek. The way he positions himself and creates opportunities helps my game a lot.”
In Barcelona, Vallejo Agustí trained in the school of the renowned FC Barcelona. During that time he even trained with Bojan Krkic, who now plays for AC Milan. But his relationship with Barcelona goes beyond football.
He keeps up to date on current political events in Catalonia. He likes to talk about Catalan history and all its setbacks. "I'm not Spanish, but Catalan," he concludes in perfect English. “We speak our own language, we have our own history and traditions. I really hope that Catalonia becomes once more completely independent, as we were before 1714. I was not particularly happy when Spain won the World Cup and the European Cup, but other than that I have nothing against them. I have no ill wishes. I need to go back to FC Barcelona, which feels like our national team. So, it’s true, Barça is really més que un club—more than a club.”
His idol is, almost inevitably, FC Barcelona’s captain, Carles Puyol. Vallejo Agustí will likely play in the same position next year for Lunteren. After he finishes his studies he will go back to Barcelona. That much he knows for sure.
Visc,a Barca!