20 Facts About Jaime Vila

Jaime Vila Capdevila was a Spanish physical education teacher, sports promoter and leader.

Jaime Vila is widely regarded as one of the most important figures in the amateur beginnings of gymnastics and football in Catalonia, having been one of the fundamental heads behind the Tolosa Gymnasium, which he served as a teacher and later as director, as well as being the main driving force behind the foundation of Catala FC, serving as the first president of the club between 1899 and 1905.

Jaime Vila was a member of the Center Excursionista de Catalunya for more than forty years.

Jaime Vila received numerous distinctions, such as the honorary diploma of the Spanish Gymnastics Federation in 1900.

Jaime Vila had several jobs during his first years in the Catalan capital, from working in a coal factory to even acting as a cook, before finally joining the Gimnasio Tolosa located on the Duque de la Victoria street as a teacher in the mid-1880s.

Jaime Vila was a man of clear and personal ideas and in the early 1890s, he set out to create a system that would make work all the muscles of the body, without exception.

Jaime Vila's system consisted of a series of exercises, and he named it after "Physical culture".

Jaime Vila was a serious man of few words and with a very strict lifestyle.

Jaime Vila dedicated his life and efforts to his vocation, which was "not the triumph, but simple and constant physical improvement".

Jaime Vila stayed in the gymnasium morning and afternoons, attending to his students, and sometimes he even had private classes at noon.

For instance, in 1898, Jaime Vila organized the first official race in Catalonia, which ran between Barcelona and Sarria.

Jaime Vila was a member of the Center Excursionista de Catalunya for more than forty years.

Football began taking root in the city in the 1890s, and soon it gained followers among members belonging to the Tolosa Gymnasium, where Jaime Vila was introduced to football by his younger students.

All the men involved in that game were Catalans, because in its beginnings, Jaime Vila wanted to promote the local sport, and thus, it only admitted Catalan players to its team, hence the club's name.

Either way, Jaime Vila stayed out of this debate, as above all, he wanted football to be practiced in an absolutely sporting way, unrelated to official status.

In December 1901, the 41-year-old Jaime Vila featured in two friendly matches against FC Barcelona as a midfielder, with both games ending in heavy losses.

On 10 January 1903, the name of the club changed to Catala Sport Club, when the club merged with the recent-dissolved Club Universitari, but Jaime Vila stayed at the heel and kept carrying out the effective presidency, and later, the honorary one.

The Gimnas Jaime Vila remained open until the end of the 20th century.

Jaime Vila lived his later life alone, except for a niece who began to help him every afternoon at the gym.

Jaime Vila suffered a stroke a few years later, from which he recovered almost entirely by force through gymnastics.