Features
MIÉ 07.10.2015
2,535 kilometers away from Villarreal is located the Slovak town of Michalovce, a town to which has come the passion for the colors of Villarreal CF, current leader of Liga BBVA. Football established a link between two cities linked by more than just sports and September 4, 2009, Fernando Roig, president of the club, officially presented the Penya "El Madrigal" at a press conference.
"Our Fan Club is based in Michalovce, a town of similar size to Vila-real, with approximately 45,000 inhabitants. Moreover, Vila-real and Michalovce are officially twin cities. Both towns agreed to name a street with the name of the Twin City. So in Vila-real can be found the Michalovce Street, and in Michalovce you can find the street of Vila-real", said Simon Melnik, coordinator and vice president of the fan club.
All members are Slovaks and the Penya already has more than thirty fans who, for seven years, have been following the team from Castellon in matches of Liga BBVA and in European competitions. "We are quite active and try to attend at least one or two games a season at El Madrigal. We also traveled to European matches. Since 2009, we have been present in several games including Barcelona, Real Madrid, Celtic, Napoles, Bayern, Manchester City and Salzburg ".
"Most of our members are from Michalovce. Some of them study or live in Bratislava and we have five members, including myself, who work and live in the UK. We also have some famous faces as Zimnykoval Milan, host of the program "Czech Republic & Slovakia's Got Talent" or the player of Gornik Zabrze (Poland) Erik Grendel, who played for Slovan Bratislava", he said.
As for the best memories, the components of the "Penya" agreed that every time they travel to see a match "is special." "We are still waiting for the best memory to come. It may be this season, we'll see", he concluded.
© LALIGA - 2015