Manuel "Manolo" Grau Solé (26 December 1872 – 7 May 1934) was a Spanish athlete and a pioneer of Spanish sport. He was a player and director of FC Barcelona, as well as a prominent gymnast, fencer, and practitioner and disseminator of many other sports. In addition to being one of the first members of FC Barcelona, Solé was also co-founder and vice president of the Barcelona Swimming Club in 1907, founder and president of the Solé Pedestre Club (1909), and owner of the Gimnasio Solé from 1910 until his death.[1]
Early and personal life
Solé was born on 26 December 1872 in Benissanet, in the Ribera d'Ebre, at the age of 23, and moved to Barcelona under the tutelage of his uncle, Francisco Solé, who ran an important gym on Carrer del Carme in Montjuïc.[1] In this environment, he became one of the pioneers in sports practice in Barcelona, working as a gymnastics teacher and standing out as a fencer, a discipline in which he won several tournaments.
Solé married Magdalena Sans, but the couple had no children.[2] His brother Juan Bautista Grau Solé (1876–?) was a fencing teacher at the Solé Gymnasium and one of the most prominent Spanish fencers of the early 20th century.[1] Another Grau Solé brother named José was a prominent doctor in Barcelona.[1]
Sporting career
As a friend of Joan Gamper, Solé closely witnessed the founding of FC Barcelona on 29 November 1899, which took place in the Gimnasio Solé. He was one of two figures that were present in this historic meeting, but were not founding members, the other being Narciso Masferrer, who had the headquarters of his numerous initiatives domiciled in the gym.[3] He was one of the first members of the Barcelona club and played at least one match, a friendly against Català FC on 23 September 1900, acting as a defender in a 3–1 victory, thus becoming the first player from the Tarragona area to play for the club.[1][a] He was then vice secretary of the board of directors chaired by Walter Wild between 17 October and 30 December 1900, the day in which the board not only replaced him with Fernando Blanco, but also granted the title of "Honorary Members" to several partners, including Gamper and his uncle Francisco Solé due to his decisive contribution to the birth of the club..[1] Later, during the presidency of Otto Gmeling (1909–10), he served as the club's first member.[1] It was a board that was very respectful of the club's origins since Masferrer was the vice president and Gamper the treasurer.[1]
Solé was also a friend of Bernat Picornell, with whom he founded the Club Natació Barcelona, a pioneer in the practice of swimming and water polo in Spain, which was established on 10 November 1907 at the Gimnasio Solé in 1907, just like FC Barcelona eight years before.[1][6] He was vice president of the club and promoted the first Spanish Championship of swimming [es].[7] He was also the creator and president of the Solé Pedestre Club, in 1909.[1]
In January 1910, Solé took over from his uncle as director and owner of the Solé Gym.[1][8] In 1914 he closed the old premises to open a new one a few meters away, on Pintor Fortuny Street, no. 2, under the name Solé Physical Culture Center.[9][10] Representatives of the daily and professional press were invited to the event, and councilor Mr. Ripoll also attended.[10] They did the honors of the house, together with Solé, Cercos, the doctor of the establishment, and Grao, professor of the Sala de Armas (weapons room).[10] The guests visited all the first and second-class bathroom departments, luxuriously installed, the Weapons Room, which is very elegant and spacious; the Gymnasium hall, where lunch was served, with all those present expressing their wishes for the prosperity of the establishment.[10] The architects who have contributed to the beautification of the establishment were Antonio Ventura, master builder; José Preckler, smokers, boilers and pipes; Orsola Sola and Inc, mosaics; Lacoma brothers, bathtubs, toilets and sinks; Ramón Solé, furniture maker; Fargas and Buxaderas, carpentry, and Franzi brothers, marbles; the works were directed by the renowned architect Juan Casado.[10]
In 1924 Solé was one of the guests of honor at the banquet that commemorated the Silver Jubilee of FC Barcelona.[1]
Death
Solé died in Barcelona on 7 May 1934, at the age of 61.[1][2] His nephews Gustau Griñó and Maria Contell, along with cousins and other relatives, asked their friends and acquaintances to keep Solé in their prayers and to attend the funeral a few days later and to accompany the corpse to the parish church and from there to the Old Cemetery.[2]
Notes
^The Great Dictionary of Barça Players, published by FC Barcelona, attributes six unofficial games played between 1900 and 1907 to Manuel Soler, a footballer for whom there are no biographical data.[4][5] Some historians believe that it could be Manuel Solé, whose surname would have been incorrectly written in the chronicles of the time, given the phonetic similarity of both surnames in Catalan.[1] However, there was indeed another family linked to the early years of FC Barcelona named Soler.[1] For instance, the delivery of the trophy of the 1901–02 Copa Macaya, Barça's first-ever piece of silverware, took place at the Gran Continental restaurant, which was owned by Francisco Soler, who also owned the Tibidabo restaurant.[1] In an interview from the Philippines in 1946, former player Manuel Amechazurra remembered a player from 1903 to 1904 named Soler "from the Tibidabo hotel", and the versatile sportsman and author of hunting books Joan Soler Lluch, who played for Barça between 1903 and 1907, was also the owner of the Tibidabo restaurant years later, so this Manuel Soler might be a member of that family.[1]
^"Notas de sport - Cultura Física" [Sports notes - Physical Culture] (PDF). hemeroteca-paginas.lavanguardia.com (in Spanish). La Vanguardia. 21 January 1910. p. 4. Retrieved 27 March 2024.
