Pere Guiu Torrabadella, influential coach and Andorran civil servant, dies aged 72

Pere Guiu Torrabadella, 72, has died at Manresa Hospital after complications linked to long‑standing health problems. He had been admitted for several days and had been receiving regular dialysis in recent years.

Born in Sant Vicenç de Castellet, Guiu made his name in Catalan basketball, including a notable stint coaching at Manresa. He moved to Andorra in the 1980s to take charge of Bàsquet Club Andorra’s first team after the club’s promotion from the third to the second division (the equivalent of today’s LEB Plata), succeeding Manel Fernández. Guiu stabilised the team at that level and introduced a new style of play and organisation that the club later credited with modernising its sporting project; he has frequently been described by the club as “the coach of change.”

Beyond the bench, Guiu spent about three decades as a civil servant in the Government of Andorra, working in roles linked to youth, volunteering and sport. He served as head of areas within the Department of Youth and Volunteering and also acted as head of press at the then Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports. His work to promote civic participation and to expand volunteer registration was publicly recognised by the Andorran Volunteer Committee in 2014 during the International Volunteer Day ceremonies.

A naturalised Andorran, Guiu was active in local and national politics. In the 2015 general election he was number two on the Social Democratic Party’s territorial list for Sant Julià de Lòria, led by Josep Maria Cucalón. The PS president, Pere Baró, paid tribute to him as a reference figure for sport and volunteering and as a long‑standing social democrat; Guiu’s daughter, Montserrat Guiu, is the party’s communications director.

Although he spent many years living and working in Andorra, Guiu maintained strong ties with his native Sant Vicenç de Castellet, where he served as a municipal councillor in several terms with different political groups and at times played a decisive role in local governance. After retiring from public service he returned to central Catalonia, where he had been living prior to his death.