Last Tuesday his family donated this collection to the Sports Interpretation Center as the wish of one of the most important businessmen on the island. His legacy is now the heritage of the Balearic Islands, but his life’s work, promoting the sport, meant much more.
“I am sure that he would be very happy to see how we have fulfilled his will,” acknowledges his wife, Joana Maria Pujol, excited. “I had a kind of obsession with the compilation of all those copies, but in the end it is something material that will fulfill its function much better in the velodrome library, where everyone will be able to consult them,” he acknowledges to this newspaper.
Behind all those volumes, which are now waiting on several pallets to be deposited in the library of the Sports Interpretation Center, there is “a lot of work and enthusiasm”. “It was a hobby that began in 2000 and that we were introduced to at home without almost realizing it,” recalls his youngest daughter, Silvia Buades. “He started with a small collection, but we soon realized that it was getting out of hand. He almost had to take us out of the house to be able to keep everything he bought, “they recall with laughter and many memories.
This is how, from a small bookstore dedicated to football in a corner of the family home, Pep Buades went on to set up a large sports library in one of the premises he owned in Palma. «He was a little ant. The Palma flea market started out as its main source of specimens, but it soon opened to other traces such as the one at Son Bugadelles in Santa Ponça or the one on Sundays at Consell », explains Joana Maria:« He loved to walk, so he went always from one place to another and took advantage of his trips to build more library. He always came home with a bag under his arm and on Mondays our secretary Mari Carmen was in charge of placing the books according to their theme or language ».
Pep Buades, who died at the age of 86 now three years ago, dedicated practically his entire life to sports. He was a member of the Balearic Football Federation in the Joan Seguí stage and vice president with Antonio Borrás del Barrio. For more than a decade he organized the Ciutat de Palma Soccer Trophy, in addition to becoming the president of the Buades Electricista futsal team.
«I remember him leafing through the books he got, but he didn’t have a great obsession with reading either. He did like to spend time with his grandchildren and my oldest son, for example, taught him a lot of football. As he saw that he liked them, he began to look for many comics, so that the little one could entertain himself reading. He also collected sticker albums. When he was missing one, he made me write to Panini so that they could send them to us », Silvia recalls.
‘It is impossible to calculate the value of such a collection. At first they were only the copies of the markets, but soon he began to take advantage of any trip we made to expand his library. Maybe we were in Madrid and he said to me: ‘Let’s go for a ride’. I had the whole journey well planned to go through several bookstores and end up at the Rastro. He knew them all, “recalls his wife with a smile.
In 2011 Pep Buades donated 8,207 books while alive, which added to the 3,247 that his family gave out last Tuesday, amounted to 11,454 copies, which makes the CIEIB library the fifth largest sports-themed library in Spain: « Both my daughters and I are very proud of all that this means and I know that for all their grandchildren it will always be a source of pride. It was tremendous.
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