Manolo el del Bombo obituary: Spanish football superfan

Times

02-05-2025

Following the Spain national football team meant everything to Manolo el del Bombo and nearly cost him everything — even his famous bass drum. For some four decades, no game featuring 'La Roja' home or abroad was complete without el del Bombo lending a rhythm to Spain's intricate short-passing game with a persistent beat on the drum that was as round as its owner.
A self-professed 'old-fashioned Spanish male', el del Bombo was a good-natured figure, unmistakable with his wide-brimmed Basque black beret jammed on his head, Aragonese cachirulo headscarf around his neck and Spain shirt bulging from his pork stew-fortified barrel chest. The shirt bore the legend 'Manolo 12' on the back. He was, after all, La Roja's 12th man.
El del Bombo (meaning 'he of the bass drum') followed the Spanish team all over the world, attending ten World Cups and seven European Championships. Wherever he went he was embraced by the 'football family' of all persuasions, stopped in the street and asked to pose for pictures. 'The owner of a restaurant once gave me a stuffed parrot,' he recalled.
After more than 20 painful years watching Spain fail to win international tournaments, he was rewarded when the revitalised La Roja, orchestrated by the 'tiki-taka' passing mastery of Xavi Hernández and Andrés Iniesta in midfield, won the European Championship in Austria and Switzerland in 2008.
He therefore flew to South Africa in 2010 fully expecting Spain to win the World Cup for the first time. Yet as La Roja edged their way towards the final in Johannesburg, el del Bombo was taken ill and forced to fly home. He recovered in time to take his place in the stands for the showpiece match. And as his meaty arms pounded away at the base drum, Spain did not let him down; Iniesta scored a late goal against the Netherlands in extra time to confirm what everybody already knew: el del Bombo's beloved Spain were the best in the world. 'I thought I was going to die without seeing us being world champions,' he recalled. 'And now I can die.'
Manuel Cáceres Artesero was born in 1949 in the village of San Carlos del Valle and grew up in the city of Huesca in the northeast, which, he said, 'has a tradition of drums'. He learnt to play as a young man and perfected what he called his 'happy' technique in support of his local team, Huesca, in Spain's third division.
He attended his first Spain match in 1976 and began following La Roja abroad three years later. In the early days travelling support was sparse. 'The way Spain play now has mobilised people. I look back 25 years and I would be in a stadium with 20 supporters or even up in the stands on my own. I banged the drum for no one. Except the players.'
ALAMY
The 1982 World Cup hosted by Spain was when el del Bombo secured his brand, albeit in a losing cause after Spain crashed out in the second group phase after a 0-0 draw with England. In watching all five of Spain's matches he hitchhiked 10,000 miles. Thereafter he became a Spanish national treasure, but in 1987 returned to Valencia after a Spain match to find that his wife had left him and taken their four children. 'Why? Because I had pretty much abandoned them. Because I was always with Spain.'
El del Bombo ran a bar next to Valencia 's home stadium that he turned into a shrine to his footballing passion and memories. The business suffered owing to his regular absences and faced closure after the pandemic, until it was bought on the condition that el del Bombo would be present with his drum on match days.
In later years he became part of the national team's entourage. The Royal Spanish Football Federation paid for his travel, hotel and tickets to games. Before matches el del Bombo would show a surprising turn of speed as he ran on to the pitch like a toreador to take the acclaim of the crowd. He even appeared in adverts but drew the line at many offers to stick advertising on his sacred drum. 'I would be able to charge a lot, but I won't do it,' he said. ' El del bombo no se mancha. The drum doesn't stain.'
In 2017 he was 'devastated' when his drum was stolen before Spain played a friendly against Colombia in Murcia. After a national outcry, the drum was handed in a day later.
At the 2018 World Cup in Russia he was blocked from entering stadiums with his drum because of new Fifa regulations. A tearful el del Bombo appeared on news bulletins and proclaimed: 'Putin, friend, help a friend.' Whether the Kremlin intervened is unknown, but after his appeal el del Bombo was allowed in with his drum. It would be his final tournament. Thereafter, he was no longer well enough to travel to games.
With his health failing, he watched from his old bar as Spain broke English hearts in the final to win the 2024 European Championship. 'La Roja has given us great moments in history. It has made us vibrate, cry, scream and, in my case, hit the drum as if there were no tomorrow,' he said. 'This is to thank all of you for sharing with me the passion for La Roja and, above all, the support and affection that you constantly show me. Because without you there would be no national team, there would be no football, there would be no Manolo el del Bombo.'