Joan Soler i Julià

Joan Soler Julià (1 March 1883 – 27 May 1944) was a Spanish doctor and sports leader who served as the director of the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau in Barcelona, as well as the 24th president of FC Barcelona in 1939 and 1940.

Early life and education Joan Soler was born in the Barcelona square of Plaça de Santa Anna on 1 March 1883, as the son of doctor Joan Soler i Buscalla (1835–1895), native of Olvan, and Dolors Juliá and Inès, native of Barcelona. He studied at both the Institut de Barcelona and the Faculty of Medicine, from which he graduated in 1897 and 1905, respectively. In 1941, he created an Anesthesiology Service at the Hospital de Sant Pau, which was the first in not only Catalonia, but also in Spain, which soon acquired great prestige for being the centre where the first Catalan and Spanish anesthesiologists were trained.

Writing and lecturing career In addition to his medical career, Soler wrote several articles that he published in the leading journals of the time, such as the Annals de Medicina i Cirugía, Ars Mèdica, and Anales del Hospital de la Santa Cruz y Sant Pablo, and even before 1911, he served as the editorial secretary of the Revista de Ciencias Médicas de Barcelona, the most prestigious medical publication of those times. During this period, he undertook the difficult task of relaunching the club, which had been torn by the War, doing so while under the intense scrutiny of the three Falangist directors appointed to the Management Committee by the regime, who exercised so much control and surveillance over all of Barça's activities that the authorities even opened a specific file dedicated to the club. Despite this, Soler, with the help of former Barça directors, such as Jaume Guardiola and Joan Bargunyó, attempted to push through a management plan aimed at reopening the Les Corts stadium, rebuilding the squad, and recovering the lost membership.

Death In 1943, Soler was elected a full member of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Barcelona, but he was unable to read the speech that he had prepared because an illness prevented him from attending the induction ceremony. Married to Dolors Creus i Vidal, he died a few months later, on 27 May 1944.