GIRONA
When you grow up in a place without a strong football tradition, you start looking elsewhere. For photographer Axel Casas, that meant casting his gaze across Spain—and beyond.
His latest journey took him through Girona, Barcelona, Madrid and Napoli, camera in hand, drawn not just to the game itself but to the stories that orbit around it.
Girona, though, left a particular mark.
“In 2024, they qualified for the Champions League for the first time,” he says. “As someone who loves football and a good story, I couldn’t miss it.”
Axel arrived in a city that doesn’t shout. Girona is calm and quietly proud—its old quarter is still intact, and its river is running cleanly through the centre.
“It’s like a Catalan Venice,” he says. The usual suspects of chain stores and identikit cafés haven’t taken over. Instead, you’ll find independent shops, local restaurants, and a sense of place that still feels genuine.
That same feeling runs through the football club. The matchday atmosphere at Montilivi, Girona’s home ground, had weight to it.
“There was history in the air,” Axel says. “The first time I heard the Champions League anthem there, I cried.”
He recalls chatting to an elderly man at a bus stop who remembered when the stadium was first being built. Now, to be walking through its gates for a Champions League match felt almost unreal.
Around town, the excitement was everywhere—flags draped from balconies, kids in replica shirts, even a lawyer’s office with a club flag hanging from the door.
“It was a celebration,” Axel says, “the whole city was in it together.”
For all its quiet charm, Girona knows what football means. It may not have the scale of Madrid or Barcelona, but what it has is real: community, pride, and passion that doesn’t depend on silverware.
“You should go,” he says. “It won’t be the stadium of your life, but it’ll be full of people who genuinely love their club and support it until the very last minute. For me, that’s what football is about. Not trophies in museums.
“Also, this is for Jordi! Couldn’t have done this without you. Hope you like football a bit more after this!”
ALL IMAGES BY AXEL CASAS, WHO YOU CAN FOLLOW ON INSTAGRAM HERE: axelcasas__