The venerable old man with the long white beard and red coat did not park his sled this year near Camp Nou, the den of FC Barcelona.
Weighed down by record losses, amounting to 481 million euros, the Catalan club is now sparing no savings.
According to facts reported this Saturday by the daily AS, it was thus decided in high places not to put their hand in the wallet to offer Christmas presents to Xavi players.
In recent seasons, Barca players used to go on vacation with several bags and boxes in their hands.
The club, taking advantage of the support of a sponsor, pampered, according to the daily, the players of the first team, most often by offering them high-tech gadgets such as the latest generation iPhone or iPad.
The then president, Josep Maria Bartomeu, was at the origin of this initiative, which he scrupulously respected during his mandate (from 2014 to 2020).
Griezmann, a very generous teammate
A year ago, already, under the specious pretext of a vacancy in the presidency linked to the departure of Bartomeu in October 2020, the players had not received any gift from their employer. The French world champion Antoine Griezmann then took out his checkbook to offer all his partners a personalized wallet from a French luxury brand. Returned since to Atlético Madrid, the international tricolor has found no generous successor in the Barça locker room.
One could have imagined, with the return to business of Joan Laporta in March 2021, the resurgence of this custom. Obviously, it is not. The first Blaugrana leader had nevertheless been generous during his first term (2003-2010). But it is clear that this was a different time, with an economic situation allowing certain largesse. Now all income must be invested solely and exclusively in covering expenses and reducing debt. The time when the partners of Leo Messi, who left for PSG in the summer of 2021 in the face of his club's inability to always afford his salary, left the locker room with new car keys or bonuses of a million dollars to distributing is over.
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Today, a 180 degree turn has been made.
The club, weakened last season by the lack of ticketing linked to the pandemic, disappointing sporting results and declining merchandising, is no longer ready to face expenses not provided for in the budget.
Especially with financial "fair play" on the heels and the need to urgently reduce the wage bill to cope with the reinforcements requested by the technical staff of Xavi, Koeman's successor at the beginning of November, for the January transfer window.
