Daniel Lagares
08/14/2020 - 18:53
- Clarín.com
- sports
Now we need to know what Lionel Messi will do. If he takes the lead in rebuilding Barcelona or looking for a last sporting challenge in other latitudes. It was nice while it lasted, but the dream is over.
The football massacre in Portugal was the epitaph of the decline that began precisely at the moment of greatest glory. On June 6, 2015, Barca beat Juventus 3-1 in Berlin and won the Champions League. Since then, everything has gone downhill despite the fact that statistics indicate that 10 titles entered the Camp Nou windows in the subsequent five-year period.
At 33, Messi must make the most difficult decision of his life . Stay or go. Stick to what you don't know. Go somewhere that at least guarantees a dignified closure to your fabulous campaign as it enters the fall of your career. Messi is not finished; This Barcelona is finished. As a team, as a team and with this leadership.
Ter Stegen; Dani Alves, Piqué, Mascherano, Alba; Rakitic, Busquets, Iniesta; Messi, Suárez and Neymar, were the initials of that afternoon in Berlin. On the bench were Bravo, Xavi, Pedro, Rafinha, Bartra, Adriano and Matheu.
Lionel Messi's lament, in Lisbon, AP Photo
It was Xavi's last game, who entered the final minutes. And the beginning of the diaspora: Alves and Bravo left in 2016, Neymar fled in 2017, Iniesta and Mascherano left the club in 2018, which also changed Luis Enrique for Ernesto Valverde and the latter for Quique Setién, who will not continue either.
In the middle, the political dispute of the directors was charged to half commission and Josep María Bartomeu was left in charge of a Titanic heading to the iceberg and with no possibility of re-election. The names of former presidents Laporta and Rosell and the self-appointed Font haunt the election act of 2021.
In these five years, Barcelona made 29 purchases, including the recent one by Pjanic, for just over a billion euros and some of those footballers barely put on their shirts. Arda Turan, Yerry Mina and Deulofeu can join that list. Vidal, Griezmann and Lenglet, among those who participated in this decadent stage. And others failed, like Coutinho or Dembelé.
At the same time, he sold 28 footballers for 657 million euros. There is, therefore, a hole in the treasury . And it is known what the immediate economy of an unpredictable market will be like.
There has never been so little of Messi in a game. And he was never so alone as against Bayern Munich. AFP Photo
In these five years, Barcelona won 3 Spanish Leagues, 3 King's Cups, 2 Spanish Super Cups, a Champions League and a Club World Cup. The sum of 10 is a relatively favorable balance as soon as the timeline is drawn.
He gave away the last league to Real Madrid. Before the stoppage he was the leader and when they came back, he lost the difference. The Copa del Rey is a secondary achievement, the Super Cups are a single match and in the Club World Cup there are no equivalences between any European team and those of other continents.
"So pretty and so dear", Messi dixit, is the Champions League. The Barca had resounding failures in Liverpool and Rome and Lisbon was the end. The team had never suffered five goals in any competition, with Messi on the field. There has never been so little of Messi in a game. And he was never so alone as against Bayern Munich.
There will be a new technician. Heads will roll and several of the sacred cows will lose their status. The directive is a Babel without destiny. Nobody knows what the future of Barcelona will be. And at that point Messi must decide if he is willing to be the flagship of an essential reconstruction or give his last years to another shirt, perhaps from another country.
It never suffered a defeat as hard as that of Lisbon. Not even those that suffered with the Selection. Not even the 2014 World Cup. What Messi will do is still unknown. And perhaps not even he is clear about a bleak outlook.
HS