One of the sports introduced by the British working at the mine of Rio Tinto (post about the visit to it I made the last week here), was football.
Welcome to Minas Riotinto (“Birthplace of Spanish football”).
I didn’t expect anything special as I had not researched the topic beforehand but I hoped there would be something knowing that the origin was there. This was immediately confirmed as there is a signpost at the entrance of the village about the relation of it with football.
But then, there was nothing else but the statue you can find below in front of the local football club field (playing in who knows which division).
I asked at the mining museum whether there was something to be visited about football and its origin in Spain. There wasn’t. “The town hall has a project of building a local museum of football, but today there is nothing”. What a pity. I guess I am not the only person who when travelling is searching for this kind of places and memorabilia, thus I guess it could have some potential.
Statue celebrating the origin of Spanish football in Minas de Rio Tinto (Huelva).
It is not the first time that I get this disappointment. You may remember that I had the same feeling when searching for the roots of football at the Freemasons in London. I would love to see such museum like the one about golf in St. Andrews, I hope that one day I will be able to do so. To date, the closest to that is the one-page text below, found at the mining museum:
Page about the introduction of football in Rio Tinto by British RTCL workers.
The Blog by Javier 