BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — In Barcelona, Espanyol is perpetually in the shadow of the Spanish city's other — much more famous — soccer club.
Espanyol's new American owner wants to change that by slowly yet surely working to create a winning mentality.
“That’s the ambition that we have: To change the mentality that we are always, always deserving to win,” Alan Pace said on Tuesday.
It was his first press conference at the team's stadium since buying Espanyol this summer and becoming its new chairman.
The move came five years after Pace made his first major venture into European soccer when he bought English club Burnley through Velocity Sports Partners, the sports arm of his ALK Capital investment firm.
“I would love for this club as well as any club that I’m associated with to have the ambition to win the Champions League, but that’s an ambition and it may happen well after I’m dead,” Pace said about Espanyol. “But we better put the things in place that make that possible. We need to change the mentality to say that is what we want.”
In the short-term, he said success for Espanyol would be to become one of the “top six” clubs in Spain, which would most likely put it in European competitions.
The club has struggled in recent seasons, battling back from two relegations and barely avoiding going down a third time last season. It has made a good start to this season, sitting ninth in La Liga after just two losses in eight games.
Former NFL star J.J. Watt, who Pace called a “good friend,” is also involved in the new ownership group that purchased the controlling share of Espanyol in July from Chinese group Rastar, which became a minority stakeholder.
Espanyol has not made public the financial details of its sale.
One key to closing the gap with crosstown rival Barcelona, Pace said, was taking a cue from Espanyol's fierce rival and look to grow abroad.
Pace said he hopes his expertise can help make Espanyol think bigger, and maybe just bring more people to its stadium when on vacation as well.
“Barça have grown thanks to people not from Barcelona more than the locals,” Pace said. “The tourists that come, they are not necessarily Barça fans, they want to see the best football possible. A lot of tourists come here and they have to at least have an opportunity to get to know us, to visit us."
Pace, 57, said he had the “dream” of one day owning a club in Barcelona ever since he fell in love with the city while going to business school in Barcelona in the early 1990s. He made lasting friendships and said his family spent summers in Barcelona. His oldest daughter married someone she met there.
He said those “big, big ties” to Barcelona definitely steered him to look here when he wanted to expand his investments.
Pace, a former Wall Street banker, said he and his team were prepared if Burnley and Espanyol were to qualify for the same European competition. UEFA rules prohibit the same owner having two teams in the same Europe-wide competition.
“I'd have to leave one of the clubs, if not both of them at the same time,” he said. “There are plans in place about what we would have to do.”
Besides his time in charge of Burnley, Pace bought and ran Major League Soccer team Real Salt Lake from 2006-08 and turned it around.
Pace said he wanted to build on the “history” of Espanyol, which is celebrating the 125th anniversary of its founding this year.
One of the original teams of La Liga, Espanyol has spent most of its history in the first division. It has more than 32,000 club members, known as “parakeets” for the team's blue-and-white colors, and its modern stadium on the south side of Barcelona has been selected to host games in the 2030 World Cup.
Espanyol's greatest success has come in the Copa del Rey, a competition it has won four times. It also reached two Europa League finals, losing both.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/soccer
Alan Pace, the owner and chairman of the soccer clubs Burnley and Espanyol, is seen on March 2, 2024, in Burnley, England. (Jess Hornby/PA via AP)
FILE - Real Madrid's Kylian Mbappe, right, and Espanyol's Fernando Calero, left, challenge for the ball during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Real Madrid and Espanyol at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, Spain, Sept. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez, File)
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Two Democrats vying to be Iowa's next U.S. senator are scheduled to debate Thursday, as each seeks to convince voters he's better positioned to flip the Republican-held seat in a contest that has seen heavy outside spending and high-profile endorsements.
State lawmakers Zach Wahls and Josh Turek are competing in a June 2 primary. It is one of a few remaining competitive Democratic Senate primaries this year, as the party looks to find the best approach to reclaim the U.S. Senate this fall.
Iowa’s Republican Sen. Joni Ernst opted out of a reelection bid, leaving the seat open for the first time since she replaced retiring Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin in 2014. Republican Senate leaders have backed Ashley Hinson, a congresswoman representing northeast Iowa, committing $29 million for her to help keep their thin majority.
Democrats see an opportunity to flip seats in the once-competitive state, despite President Donald Trump’s double-digit win in the last presidential election and an all-Republican federal delegation. But first they need to settle which federal candidate will be at the top of the ticket. Early voting began Wednesday.
While Wahls and Turek have raised and spent similar amounts, a Democratic political organization, VoteVets, has spent about $7 million to support Turek in the final stretch of the campaign. That's more than the two candidates have spent combined.
Turek, who is not a veteran, was born with spina bifida after his father’s exposure to chemicals while serving in the Vietnam War. The group has said Turek is uniquely positioned to advocate for veterans’ services, especially health care and military families.
Wahls has criticized the influx of cash as insiders in Washington trying to exert outsized influence, and it's likely to come up again Thursday, as it did at an Iowa Press debate last week.
Wahls has been vocal about who should — or should not — lead Senate Democrats, saying he would not vote for Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York to be the caucus leader.
“The leadership of Chuck Schumer has failed the Democratic Party, it has failed the state and it has failed this country,” Wahls said during last week's debate. “Dark money has an agenda, and that agenda is to protect the broken status quo and the failed leadership of Sen. Schumer.”
Schumer has tried to keep the focus on Republicans.
Wahls is endorsed by U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who joined him in Iowa for campaign events over the weekend. The progressive senator told voters the Senate needs Democrats who are willing to “get in there and stand up and fight.” Wahls also often highlights the support he's seen from unions and local elected officials.
Turek responded to Wahls' criticism saying he's not a “DC insider."
“I don't know these folks," he said. Turek explained his criteria for leader candidates but stopped short of saying he wouldn’t support Schumer.
“I will go up and ask whoever is deciding to run for leadership ... ‘What are you going to do for Iowa? What are you going to do for Iowans? What are you going to do for the middle class?’” Turek said.
In the last week, Turek unveiled a rare endorsement from Harkin, who represented Iowa in Washington for three decades, as well as former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. Turek also has collected endorsements from sitting U.S. senators, including Illinois' Tammy Duckworth, New Hampshire's Maggie Hassan and Nevada's Catherine Cortez Masto.
In the first debate last week, Turek and Wahls were aligned on many issues. Both said that they would not support the Republican president’s tariffs or the war in Iran and that they do support raising the minimum wage and restoring health care access with a public insurance option. They criticized corruption in Washington and proposed higher taxes on corporations and wealthy Americans.
But they also started to draw some contrasts. More of that is likely Thursday.
Wahls referenced a law Turek supported in the Iowa legislature that makes it a state crime to be in the U.S. illegally. Turek defended his vote, saying it was Biden-era legislation and stressed the importance of a secure U.S.-Mexico border. Turek said he also supports an easier path to citizenship and reforms to immigration enforcement under the Trump administration.
Turek highlighted his working-class background and contrasted his work for a nonprofit with Wahls’ work for a political organization focused on electing young Democrats.
Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2026 election at https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/.
This combination of file photos shows Iowa State Sen. and candidate for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate Zach Wahls speaking in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Sept, 11, 2025, left, and Iowa state Rep. Josh Turek speaking in Des Moines, Iowa, April 8, 2026, right. (Nick Rohlman/The Gazette via AP, File)
