Far, very far from thinking about the match that awaits them on Saturday against Espanyol Barcelona, the Valence CF players have mobilized in recent days in their region very badly affected by the floods. Papelu, Javi Guerra, Diego Lopez and Jesus Vazquez, for example, traveled to the particularly bereaved town of Paiporta.
For their part, striker Hugo Duro and his wife Nerea Marti, a motorcycle rider, took a shovel to help clean up in the very affected region of Xiva, reports the media “Footboom”. Several teammates did the same, including José Gaya, Cristhian Mosquera and Fran Perez who helped volunteers on the Picanya side.
“There are players who live in this area or who have families who live there, staff members and employees as well. There is a lot of concern,” club director Javier Solis shared in the daily “L’Equipe”.
Like captain José Gaya, many players from the first team also participated in the collection of basic necessities organized by the club within the stadium. The club announced that it had collected a total of more than 1,000 tonnes of food, medicines and other materials. A good part was directly redistributed to the population.
The solidarity shown by the Valencia players has been widely commented on and cited as an example. But they are not the only athletes to have mobilized.
FC Nantes midfielder Pedro Chirivella, for example, organized a clothing collection, indicates “Ouest France”. Supported by his coach Antoine Kombouaré, the native player from Valencia, obviously very touched, managed to mobilize his teammates who themselves brought clothes. The coach mentioned setting up a fund to support the victims.
