Embracing success: The heavyweight Spanish membership has needed to flip to certainly one of its legends to revive its fortunes.
| Photo Credit: AP
The romance of successful titles each as a grasp and an apprentice at a soccer membership seems like the excellent media story, or perhaps a Hollywood script.
Bob Paisley did it with Liverpool, Carlo Ancelotti with AC Milan and Zinedine Zidane with Real Madrid. Now, Xavi Hernandez has accomplished his circle of life with Barcelona.
Beating Espanyol 4-2 on Monday, with 4 video games to go, Barcelona received its first LaLiga title in 4 seasons, below the stewardship of Xavi, who had received eight league titles as a participant at the membership.
And that circle of life turned extra particular given the circumstances at the membership.
In 2020, when Liverpool received the Premier League, folks got here out with flares, kids on prime of their fathers’ shoulders, cheering for his or her membership in a world that was determined for happiness throughout the catastrophic COVID-19 interval.
Barcelona’s eager for pleasure was related, if not the identical. The gamers celebrated their silverware with a sardana, like gleeful toddlers rejoicing in a backyard. Fans sang, with tears rolling down their cheeks, and Xavi stood smiling from ear to ear.
The membership has been embroiled in a refereeing scandal, the place allegations of paying the former president of the LaLiga refereeing committee, Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, for “technical reports” have earned it a foul title.
Severe monetary disaster had seen Barcelona legend Lionel Messi depart at the same time as the membership plunged right into a debt of over a billion euros. It bought 25% of its LaLiga broadcasting rights and needed to shut down its personal channel Barca TV.
With a fractured crew and no trophies since Messi’s exit, being a Barcelona fan turned harder. And being the supervisor turned a nightmare.
‘It’s laborious’
“I am constantly judged and criticised. It’s hard, I have a family and kids,” Xavi had lamented in March this 12 months. “There are many moments when it doesn’t pay to be a Barca coach. And even more so if you’re a Cule like me.”
With exits from the Champions League, Europa League and Copa del Rey, nights bought darker in Catalonia.
Rays of hope ultimately arrived in the Spanish Super Cup, the place Barcelona beat arch-rival Real Madrid to win the trophy in January, and 4 months later, snatched the LaLiga from the exact same crew with a victory over one other rival (Espanyol).
Xavi is certainly one of twenty first century’s membership legend-turned-managers, emulating Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Frank Lampard and Mikel Arteta.
But in the hardest of occasions, he proved to be the prodigal son of Barcelona, dwelling by the motto Mes Que Un Club (greater than a membership) and discovering the silver lining at Camp Nou.
