Terima Kasih dan Selamat Jalan, Tito Vilanova!

Berita duka menyelimuti klub FC Barcelona, fans dan keluarga yang ditinggalkan. Mantan pelatih FC Barcelona, Tito Vilanova meninggal dunia pada hari Jum’at, 25 April 2014.

Sebelumnya pada hari Kamis, Tito dibawa masuk ke ruang emergency Chiron Hospital karena mengalami komplikasi pada lambungnya. Sempat diberitakan bahwa hari ini kondisi Tito telah normal, namun pihak klub dalam website resminya mengumumkan bahwa pelatih yang Barça juara Liga musim 2012-2013 itu telah meninggal dunia pada pukul 18.00 waktu Barcelona.

Tito Vilanova terdeteksi penyakit kanker Parotid pada tahun 2011 dan sejak itu Tito bolak-balik ke Amerika untuk mengobati penyakitnya tersebut saat melatih Barça. Akhirnya pada bulan juli 2013, Tito mengundurkan diri dari kursi kepelatihan karena ingin fokus untuk mengobati penyakitnya.

Berikut adalah kata-kata terakhir Tito saat mengundurkan diri dari pelatih Barça:

“Thank Barça, thank you all. After five wonderful years as part of a team that has made ​​dreams come true for any coach, when faced with a change in my professional life and energy to devote forces to continue the process has come disease I was diagnosed a year and a half.

Treatments that should follow from now do not recommend, in the opinion of the doctors, who can devote me one hundred percent to the tasks of the head coach of a team from the requirement of FC Barcelona, ​​but continue to closely and I will continue working for this club so much I love in other tasks of the sports area. It is not easy to leave this group of special people, players, fellow ‘staff’ and friends with whom I have shared so many unforgettable experiences. I am eternally grateful for all you have given me and what they have shown me. Football Human and quality of this team is to test any obstacle and am convinced that at full capacity will face the challenges of a new sports season should be exciting for everyone.

I also want to especially thank the President, the Board and all sporting director Andoni Zubizarreta all the confidence they placed in me, and above all for your unconditional support both athletic and personal. Equally important to me is the health and human support I receive both Dr. Ramon Canal and its team of doctors who are on my side. I know this game will not only match, which was part of a charity club that will help me succeed in this long process, as it has done until now.

To all of you, members and fans of Barca, I also want to thank wholeheartedly the outpouring of support and affection that you have sent me, not just now but over the last few months. Tell them I am calm, strong and I face this new stage in the process of my illness with complete confidence that all will be well. Many thanks to all the supporters of Footbal l, to professional colleagues, clubs, athletes and acquaintances and anonymous for your messages of encouragement to us so comforting to me and my family. These are difficult times for mine and that’s why I have asked the media respect and understanding. Now that I am no longer the coach of Barça I hope to have the peace and privacy that I and my family need right now.

I can not end this letter without wishing good luck and every success to the new coach of the best team in the world.

Thank you very much to all. Tito Vilanova. “

Kini Tito Vilanova telah pergi, namun apa yang telah dia berikan kepada FC Barcelona akan tetap ada dan terus diingat para fans Barça diseluruh dunia. Terima kasih, Tito Vilanova! #RIPTitoVilanova.

Sumber: Penya Barcelonista