When it was announced the Barcelona B team containing the latest products of the famed La Masia which has produced most of the current first team including Xavi, Iniesta & Messi were to play for the first time in England as part of their pre season and the first match was to be against Huddersfield Town I asked my Barca daft 9 year old son if he'd like to go,of course he would!
A couple of days before the match he got a visit from his uncle who handed him his phone to read an e.mail (remember when a phone was for speaking to people and there were such things as hand written letters?), Billy read it to me "Barcelona would be delighted to have Billy Jameson as their mascot for the match versus Huddersfield Town on August 8th", slightly stunned he then gave his uncle a huge hug! Unbeknown to Billy whilst said uncle was in a meeting with Huddersfield Town as part of their brilliant work with the local community the prospect of his nephew being the Barca mascot was raised, as far as Town were concerned it was fine but obviously the Catalan side would have to agree, they agreed! BILLY WAS GOING TO BE THE BARCELONA MASCOT!
On the day of the game Billy and dad made their way over to the John Smith's Stadium by train from Harrogate and arranged to meet up with mum, sister, gran, aunty and uncle at the ground where Huddersfield Town had very kindly supplied complimentary tickets. It was one of the very few genuinely sunny days of the summer and the stadium was bathed in early evening sunshine as Billy was taken pitch side with the Huddersfield mascots to be shown around just as the Barcelona players arrived for a look at the pitch. Billy was standing on the shoulders of giants! The mascots were then taken to the Huddersfield changing room where all the players kindly signed Billy’s programme and had a quick chat with the manager Simon Grayson who accused Billy of spying on his team as he was kitted out in a Barcelona kit!
In the tunnel on the way back out to the pitch the Barcelona assistant manager and a member of the coaching staff spotted Billy in his Iniesta kit and made a fuss of him, high fived him and called him ‘Miniesta’, he looked as though he was going to burst with pride! The Barcelona players came out for a warm up before the stadium opened and Billy had his photograph taken with some of the players and autographs were collected.
A kick about on the pitch with the Huddersfield mascots as the players were warming up was the next great moment and on realising a Barcelona player doing stretching exercises next to him was watching ensured his first touch was a good one! He also studiously ignored some good natured abuse he was getting from some Town supporters!Ten minutes before the kick off Billy was introduced to the Barcelona captain for the evening Jordi Masip and several of the players in the tunnel and once again photos were taken by the club photographer as he proudly stood with the players in the tunnel. As the coaching staff walked past Billy was handed a badge by the assistant manager as a souvenir of an unforgettable evening.
At 7.40pm the teams walked onto the pitch with Billy Jameson leading the Barcelona team out! He lined up in the centre circle with the Barcelona team and then walked along with the team shaking the hands of the referee and his assistants and the Huddersfield players and then joined the two captains for the toss and photographs.
Having proudly completed his mascot duties for Barcelona…BARCELONA(!), Billy took his seat in the stand with the rest of his proud family and saw Barcelona dominate the first half with the B team emulating the superb passing style of the first team but unable to turn their superiority into goals. At half time there were wholesale changes and eventually Barca’s superiority told as they took the lead through a neatly taken penalty by the outstanding Deulofeu and Sergi Araujo scoring his first goal for the club since his recent loan signing from Boca Juniors of Argentina.
On a perfect evening which even included the perfect half time soundtrack when The Jam's 'Town Called Malice' was played over the PA, Barcelona won 2-0 and at the final whistle the crowd of 7,951 showed their appreciation including one very grateful 9 year old boy. It had been the proudest moment of Billy’s life to lead the Barcelona team onto the pitch and is an evening he will never forget, Huddersfield Town had looked after him superbly and made him feel so welcome and showed the side to football that is either ignored or very rarely seen, a proper community club.
A few days later a superb momento of a once in a lifetime experience arrived, a set of photographs courtesy of Huddersfield Town 'The Yorkshire Club'.
'Miniesta' will never forget the experience!
Viva Barcelona! Visca Huddersfield Town!
Memory added on September 26, 2012
1 Comment (Add your voice)
3 months after the match Billy starting chuckling to himself as I was walking him home from school, he told me he was thinking of what Jordan Rhodes of Huddersfield (now Blackburn) had said as he walked with the Barcelona players shaking the Town players hands. 'Come on lads, we're playing against a team of 12 year olds....', by the time the 90 minutes were up i'm sure he realised his mistake!
– Chris Jameson, November 30 2012 at 20:40
