From the Stadium to the Park Bench: Why a Former Player in Palma Is Now Living on the Street

From the Stadium to the Park Bench: Why a Former Player in Palma Is Now Living on the Street

Key question

How is it possible that a man who in the early 1980s was part of the team that brought Real Mallorca back to the top division now spends his nights on a park bench near s’Escorxador — and what responsibility does the city community bear?

Critical analysis

The bare facts are brief: Jordi Morey Vich, born in 1959 in Palma, was a professional striker, later played for clubs such as Poblense, Levante and Córdoba and subsequently worked in marketing as well as in social roles for his former club. He now reports being homeless; he sleeps outdoors near the former slaughterhouse s’Escorxador, suffers according to his own account from gout and osteoarthritis and cannot afford medication. His mobile phone usually has no credit, he uses public facilities such as the library and restrooms, and he describes his situation as dramatic.

The overall picture is symptomatic: a structured career path, networks in the local football and club environment, then a break that pushed him to the margins. The gaps in care become clear — medical treatment, low‑threshold counselling services, stable housing and real reintegration are missing from his everyday life.

What is missing from the public discourse

We often talk about numbers — how many homeless people are registered in Palma — and less about the individual paths that bring people there. In Morey’s case the discussion about the transition from paid work into precarious circumstances is missing, about bureaucratic hurdles to access social benefits, about the role of sports clubs in long‑term care for former employees and about medical follow‑up care for people with chronic illnesses. Also seldom heard: the question of how local neighbourhoods and small initiatives could provide practical support when state agencies do not react quickly enough.

Everyday scene from Palma

Early in the morning in front of the library on the Plaça — the kissing of the seagulls in the wind, the clatter of the rubbish collection on the Passeig Mallorca, the bakery already pulling loaves from the oven — Morey sits on his bench near s’Escorxador. A bottle of water, a cold coffee in a paper cup, a thin sleeping bag: this is his daily inventory. Passers‑by turn off, some look away, an older man stops, remembers matches at the Sitjar stadium, leaves a coin and moves on. Such small moments show how visible and yet invisible a person in Palma can be.

Concrete solutions

1) Expand mobile social teams: teams that regularly visit targeted locations like s’Escorxador to provide not only emergency aid but also to assist with applications and arrange medical care. This work must be funded on a permanent basis, not just as isolated actions.

2) Transitional housing with personal support: small housing units linked to accompanying social work and medical follow‑up. For people with physical conditions like gout, short distances to therapies are crucial.

3) Strengthen club responsibility: sports clubs should consider binding aftercare programmes for former staff — not only for image reasons, but as locally rooted networks that can facilitate access.

4) Bureaucracy guides: volunteers or paid advisers who help with paperwork, pension or social benefit applications. Many affected people do not know which benefits they are entitled to or are afraid of complex procedures.

5) Promote neighbourhood networks: small initiatives, such as wash‑and‑shower services, clothing distributions or community meals in community centres, ease acute need and create connections.

Concise conclusion

The story of Jordi Morey Vich is not an isolated case, but it hits particularly hard because it has a face: a once well‑known player from Palma who now lies on a bench. Expressing pity is not enough. We need coordinated, permanent measures — medical, social and organisational — and a rethink by institutions and clubs: those who made their career here should not simply be written off when life goes wrong. And at the bench near s’Escorxador the city’s morning concert does not stop; it is up to us to ensure that in those sounds a helping hand is also extended.