Manolo Cáceres Arteseroknown in national football as Manolo 'El del Bombo', has died this Thursday, May 1 at 76 years of age. The popular Valencian amateur, who was traveling to all the matches of the selectionwas also present at the meeting that faced Spain with Holland on March 23 in Mestalla, in the victory that classified those of Luis de la Fuente for the Final Four of the Nations League. Manolo, who lived in his last years in Moncofar, Castellón, will be buried in Valencia.
Manolo began his follow -up to the national team in 1982, on the occasion of the World Cup celebration played in Spain. He was always accompanied by his hype, which ended up being his identity feature, to the point of being nicknamed Manolo, 'the hype'. Since then Manolo has been present in ten World Cups, which has made him the most recognizable character of the Spanish fans in the world with his hype and with his great beret. The English newspaper The Guardian baptized him in 2012 as “the most famous fan in Spain.”
From that World Cup in Spain to Catar, Spain has followed Spain in ten world glasses, including South Africa, in which Spain was proclaimed champion in Johannesburg after winning the final in the extension to Holland. Manolo was present in Spain '82, Mexico '86, Italy '90, United States '94, France '98, Korea and Japan 2002, Germany 2006, South Africa 2010, Brazil 2014 and Russia 2018. In a way it was a pioneer because in Spain there was no tradition of moving supporting the selection, as it happened in other countries. Spanish soccer fans were more club followers than of the National Team. But Manolo did not want to be linked to a club, although he went through the stands of many, and swore fidelity to the Spanish team's shirt, which he followed to the confines of the world.
In the last World Cup, that of Catar, starred in a confrontation with the Federation because although the RFEF provided the entrances and flights to the country of the Persian Gulf, the accommodation did not pay him, which caused a rubbing and distancing with the federative leaders, in addition to not traveling to the Asian country to support the 'Red'.
Raised in Aragon, he moved to Valencia later
Manuel Cáceres Artesero was born on January 15, 1949 in San Carlos del Valle, town of Ciudad Real. But from his childhood he was always linked to Aragon, since his parents moved to Huesca with the whole family. There he fell in love with football and developed his modest fan profile in the Alcoraz stadium stand. In Huesca he grew up and run several businesses. In those years of youth, he began to be seen accompanied by his hype encouraging Huesca and other teams in the region such as Barbastro or Real Zaragoza.
From its passage through Zaragoza, the cachirulo that has always looked around the neck has also maintained as an identity signal. Zaragoza follower especially in the 70s and 80s, later He moved to live in Valencia. There he opened a business very close to the Mestalla stadium, 'Your sports museum', and became a regular in the Chest. And from there he left for Moncofar, in Castellón, where he has spent the last years of his life with his hype, his huge beret and his cachirulo around his neck.
