He Red Bull Arena hosts on Wednesday the 27th the Conference League final between Crystal Palace and Rayo Vallecano. For many Rayistas, however, the game began days ago, with the computer screen open and the calculator in hand, looking for a way to get to Germany without the trip becoming a ruin. Berlin, Nuremberg, Prague, Vienna, Budapest… unlikely layovers, early morning flights, B-movie connections: any combination that would leave someone within a reasonable radius of Leipzig worth.
In that climate of excitement and frenetic search, what seemed like a solution appeared. When the buses organized by clubs and fans filled up, it began to circulate on WhatsApp groups and social networks. the announcement of a new bus. Price: 250 euros per person, to be paid in advance. Affordable conditions, direct destination. Seven raysistas reserved a place. But that bus never existed.
Among those affected by this alleged scam was Henryan elderly fan who he was going to make the trip with his son. The story came to ‘The Strip in Leipziga WhatsApp group with more than a thousand fans, and in less than 24 hours the Rayista community had raised enough to pay for his plane ticket. Vallecas works like this. In this neighborhood no one is left alone and, if necessary, everyone pitches in.
The staff went out of their way to donate
Although Enrique and his son were given their money back after insisting, they were more affected. A second collection was then born under the motto ‘No one without the Leipzig final’. The statement did not mince words: “Unscrupulous people have appeared willing to take advantage of people’s illusions with the sole objective of enriching themselves at the expense of rayismo“. The goal was 5,280 euros — the trips plus the 6% platform commission. 6,558 were collected.
Collection collections.
And then unexpected help arrived. Unexpected if this were not about Rayo Vallecano: Several players from the first team joined the collection. Sergio Camello contributed 2,000 euros. Andrei Rațiu, 1,000. Dani Cárdenas, 400. An anonymous donor, another 500. Iván Balliu put words to what was happening: “In Leipzig there will be no shortage of Vallecanos. What a great group we have!”.
On Wednesday there will be about 11,000 Rayistas in the stadium. Some will arrive by charter. Others, after stops that took them across half of Europe. And seven people who They were about to run out of money and without a ticket they will be in the most important match in the club’s more than one hundred years of history, because an entire neighborhood—including those who play in it—decided that this was how it had to be.