Marina Artusa
09/05/2020 - 20:25
Clarín.com
sports
That the mailbox of his house exploded with letters that distilled the desolation of the fans.
That although he had said "I want to go" and had not shown up for training, his cell phone was still part of the WhatsApp group of Barça players with the new coach.
Details as minimal as these fed the city of Barcelona during the days and nights that it lived, startled and insomniac, since the ghost of Leo Messi's goodbye to the "club of his life" covered everything.
It competed and even beat the restlessness over the cases of Covid-19, which continue to increase here, in Catalonia, where in the last 24 hours some 1,500 new infections were registered and several of its municipalities were once again confined.
From the burofax of Leo's slamming the door to FC Barcelona twelve days ago to Jorge Messi, father and representative of the club's treasure, landing at El Prat airport, the city bled to death.
From the meeting with the president of Barça, Josep Maria Bartomeu, to the interview with Goal.com and "I would never go to court against the club of my life and that is why I am going to stay",
Barcelona had no peace.
It was only this Saturday at the end of a summer that the coronavirus became uncertain and disturbing, the city overcame the tachycardia and recovered its heart rate.
It was after he heard, from Leo's mouth, that he was not leaving, that he was staying.
In the surroundings of Camp Nou, the Barça stadium that was silent for more than a hundred days due to the pandemic, there is still a lack of reasons to chant goals.
Closed and overwhelmed by the heat,
not even the few tourists who visit the city come close to gossiping
.
Sebastien and his "Messy", a postcard on the outskirts of the Camp Nou.
Photo: Cézaro de Luca
Until Sebastien appears, an Englishman wearing a Barcelona shirt who tattooed a cheating “Messi” on the back of his shirt: he stamped “Messy”, a word that alludes to the adjective that corresponds to “despiole”, “disorder” in English. , "Mess".
Synonyms of the commotion that Leo caused when he blanked that this season he looked more outside than inside of Barça.
Messi was sincerely annoyed with the club's leadership and unleashed the tsunami that thousands of FC Barcelona members capitalized in the form of a platform on social networks:
Tsunami Blaugrana
, “a group of members of the Futbol Club Barcelona organized to call for actions with the sole purpose of force the resignation of the current board of the club ”, they are defined.
"Just the day we unfolded some banners asking for signatures to obtain Bartomeu's resignation, Leo announced that he was leaving,"
one of the founders of the movement
tells
Clarín
, who prefers to remain in the background without giving his name.
According to him, the current board of directors has been looting Barça for years “and in this move, they expected someone to pay for Leo.
If they managed to get another club to put up the money for the clause, they would let them take it away wrapped in a bow and everything ”.
"
Bartomeu is not saving Messi.
It saves him.
It filled Messi's patience, ”
Tsunami Blaugrana
spokesman
Hector Alcaraz, 31, a partner of Barcelona since the arrival of Pep Guardiola as coach in 2008
, told
Clarín
.
Alex Moreno and his partner Raquel sign the Tsunami Blaugrana organization so that the president of Barcelona Josep María Bartomeu resigns.
Photo: Cézaro de Luca.
“
I have nothing to reproach Lionel for
.
His decision to want to leave is justified, although the forms may not have been so much, "he adds.
On Travessera de Collblanc street, in Hospitalet de Llobregat -a Catalan municipality close to Barcelona-, the Tsunami set up a table in a bar to collect signatures against Bartomeu.
"Motion of censure"
, says the poster that was pasted on the wall of the bar that faces the street.
If they manage to get 15 percent of the nearly 110,000 Barça members to support the measure against the current president of the club, they will get his exit and call early elections.
To collect these 16,520 signatures, three Tsunami volunteers gather adhesions at the El Tragaldabas bar, where as soon as one sits down, the owner spills alcohol gel on his hands, takes the temperature and smears the chairs and table with a sprayer labeled "kills virus".
Do you dare?
An advertising poster at the Camp Nou, the stadium that will continue to be the home of Lionel Messi.
Photo: Cézaro de Luca.
Alex Moreno and Raquel, FC Barcelona partners for more than ten years, arrived by motorcycle to the bar to sign against Bartomeu.
“We never did it before.
But this time it is necessary ”, Alex tells this newspaper as he hands over his document and membership card.
"It is a shame.
So far this year, the affiliates have hardly gone to the stadium and the club, however, charges us the subscription ”, laments one of the
Tsunami
volunteers
.
The fee to be a member of Barça, receive discounts on the club's shirts and merchandising as well as have priority to buy tickets for the finals costs between 300 and 600 euros per year.
“Here it is not like in Argentina, where the fans sing and jump and go as far as possible to follow their club - admit the boys from
Blaugrana
-.
Here it is difficult to mobilize people
.
Going to see a game is like going to the theater and many members rent their seats for around 80 euros per game, of which the club keeps most of it. "
Thus,
between curses against the board of directors of Barça
and the arrival of partners who add their signature, the afternoon and evening pass at the table at the El Tragaldabas bar.
In the city, meanwhile, he lives with a strange happiness.
Knowing that Messi stays while pretending not to know, in reality, that the only thing he wants is to leave.
Barcelona.
Special Envoy
MFV