VINCENTE PIERA
THE FOOTBALL MERIT MEDAL
— A. O. B. | 21/05/1931 —

F.C. Barcelona has asked the Catalan Football Federation to include in the assembly next month in Madrid, the awarding of the football merit medal for Vicente Piera, which Vallana, Zamora, Samitier and others have.

Under the pretext of an interview in this sense, we interviewed Vicente Piera last night, hoping to get some statements from him regarding the elimination of Barcelona by Valencia, which has been the sensational note of the last day of the Spanish Cup.

Piera, to whom we spoke about Barcelona's proposal, said:

Piera: As you will understand, it will be a great satisfaction for me to be awarded the medal that the Catalan Federation will request from the National Football Assembly. I have played fifteen international matches and for this fact I believe that I can be granted this distinction that would fulfill my aspirations as a soccer player.

— You played in the Paris Olympics, right?

Piera: Yeah. The Spanish eleven was eliminated by a goal to nil playing against Italy. L'Echo des Sports published at the end of the Olympics. The world selection of players, after observing the values that the different nations attended the tournament. Between them he placed Zamora and the following forward: Piera, Scarone, Petrone, Abegglen and Romano.

— Give us a little history of your football beginnings.

Piera: A biographical can?

— As you want. Something about the years you've been playing football.

Piera: I started playing at Sans where I performed for four years. The last three in the first team. From Sans I went to Barcelona and I have always played in the starting lineup for eleven years. At Sans, as at Barcelona, I started playing inside, replacing Paulino Alcántara at the beginning. I played wing half, centre-half and defense until they tried me as a winger for the first time in a Barcelona-Español game played for the 1922 regional championship. Barcelona won by nine goals to nil. In the same year our club was champion of Spain by beating Irún in Vigo by 5 to 1.

— Did you always play on the far right in the national team when you were selected?

Piera: No. With Portugal in my first international match, I played inside and Pagaza as a winger.

— And in other positions?

Piera: I did not play inside more than on that occasion. In Barcelona I remember two games that I played in defense against Notts County in the Industria street field.

— Come on, then, the medal of merit, you have it well deserved and now tell us what medal we are going to give Barcelona for being eliminated in the round of 16 of the Spanish Championship.

Piera tries a smile that is drawn with a bit of bitterness.

Piera: Did you see the game? The Barcelona public would undoubtedly have protested if Barcelona acted badly as they did on other occasions. On the other hand, there was not the slightest protest even at the end of the game. This is clear proof that Barcelona satisfied with their game but instead, misfortune made them lose the match.

— In truth, luck was not with you.

Piera: We dominated throughout the match and there was no way to score a goal. Cano stopped everything and the posts did the rest.

— You should have won the game in Valencia.

Piera: Who could expect that a few minutes before finishing, they would score a goal. It was a real pity, because this year Barcelona was in an excellent physical condition to reach the final.

Piera refused to talk about the match, more extensively. The azulgrana international did not want to remember for sure what, when talking about his life as a footballer and the medal of merit, he had forgotten for a moment despite being so recent.