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Soccer superstar Lionel Messi
Photo: Albert Gea / REUTERS
Not everything is bad at FC Barcelona - there is still the women's team.
For the first time, the traditional season opening for the Gamper Cup, named after the club's founder, was played on this Sunday evening with games of both sexes.
Barça's women picked up where they left off with their Champions League win last season, beating Juventus 6-0.
When the captain then gave a speech, which is also part of the Gamper liturgy, Alexia Putellas was able to promise credibly that one would strive for the triple again.
Immediately after her, Sergio Busquets found it a little more difficult.
Yes, busquets.
The intended speaker, the previous captain, had said goodbye to Barcelona a few hours earlier: Lionel Messi went through torrents of tears and the assertion that he wanted nothing more than to stay in this "club that I love."
It was precisely on this traumatic day that we had to play and talk straight away.
Busquets mastered the challenge properly, he mentioned his pride in the new task and the "exemplary" predecessors he had had: Puyol, Xavi, Iniesta and, briefly, "Leo." Applause and "Messi, Messi." Shouts in Barça's smaller second stadium »Johan Cruyff«, which was avoided due to the pandemic.
And another dedication from Busquets: »Thank you, Leo, for taking the club to the top.
... We miss you and we wish you the best. "
A separation for good
So, on the other hand, the day wasn't as traumatic as it could have been. No bad words were spoken, no ugly details were revealed, on the contrary: Messi was so agitated and humble at his last press conference in Barcelona - at the same time the first in six years - that despite all the pain, the fans also had to reassure the fans The size of their club. Together with the less emotional, but similarly harmonic appearance of President Joan Laporta on Friday, this resulted in the picture of a separation on good terms. It wasn't we who screwed it up, but the circumstances - that's the common language.
Why Messi did not want to reduce his salary further than to around 25 million euros net a year with so much club love and thus missed the chance of a statement that would have put him in a row with Gamper and Cruyff in terms of club phenomena - he did not want to reveal it.
Feelings stop when it comes to money, and his advisor father Jorge is not known for gifts.
Perhaps that is why the high-deficit club did not even ask about the possibility of a further discount.
At least that's how Messi reported it: "They haven't asked me for anything more."
Barcelona have over a billion euros in debt
Tempi passati, since yesterday. Just like the Gamper in 2005, when Juventus was last given the honor of being invited. That game marked Messi's starting eleven for Barça's first team, and the then 18-year-old showed such a brilliant performance that the then Juve coach Fabio Capello asked his counterpart Frank Rijkaard about the possibility of a loan - and Barça had to improve Messi's contract for the first of eight times. Juventus, Messi, contract: as if the story wanted to quote itself.
At the Gamper 2021, viewers shouted "Messi, Messi" again in minute 10 - his shirt number. Barça were already leading 1-0 at this point after Dutch access Memphis Depay converted an assist from Austrian youngster Yusuf Demir. Demir, 18, is formally part of the second team, but was tried by coach Ronald Koeman in previous friendly matches. He showed a strong match in the Messi position. Juve coach Max Allegri could not ask for his loan because Barça only loaned him from Rapid Vienna. At least with the option to buy: for 10 million.
At the moment, however, that would also be too much money for a club with well over a billion euros in debt.
After Messi's continued employment at the salary cap of the Spanish league failed, it is still not clear whether the four additions of the summer will fit under this wage cap.
"According to our calculations, we can register them," said Laporta.
The salaries of all four combined are not even half of what should be agreed with Messi.
What will happen to Sergio Agüero?
In addition to Depay (free from Lyon), the Spanish national defender Eric García (free transfer from Manchester City) and the Brazilian selection player Emerson Royale (right-back, nine million euros to Betis Sevilla), the quartet now completes a particularly explosive personality: the Argentine attacker Sergio Agüero - Messi's best buddy since he was a junior. Officially, he was considered a "market offer" because he also came from City free of charge; in reality, the 33-year-old was arguably signed as bait for Messi in the fall of his career.
The news from Agüero since Barça's separation from Messi: On Friday evening, the local television broadcaster Betevé reported that he had asked for his contract to be terminated. On Saturday evening, he dragged a Spanish Youtuber with him to Messi's intimate farewell dinner in his villa, who has been busy twittering about the illustrious Lord's Supper ever since. And on Sunday lunchtime he was suddenly injured in the leg, as the club reported an hour after Messi's farewell.
So entertainment is guaranteed. Koeman is also confident in sporting terms, after the Gamper he said: "We have to close the chapter (Messi) now, I told the players that too." Barça's football could become more variable and more fun to run. And the big football titles recently won with Chelsea and Italy by teams that did not have a big star.
After all, there was a 3-0 win against Cristiano Ronaldo's Juve.
Antoine Griezmann, most likely something like a Messi replacement and so far completely outshone by him, was bid farewell with an ovation after a dedicated performance, in the end the fans chanted not »Messi«, but »Riqui« (Puig) because he was the last Had scored a goal, and Messi's old companion Gerard Piqué said he was going into the season with the "anticipation of a child".
"We lost an important piece of the puzzle, but we are Barça and can still play for titles."
And if not, the women still stay.
