Flick doesn’t know it, but there is a surprise when you compare his situation with that of Rijkaard’s Barça team that was on its way to becoming European champions against Arsenal in Paris.
Hansi Flick admits that the “eureka!” moment when he promised that nothing would stop him from one day becoming a coach of the Barcelona It was the night of March 21, 2006. He and 67,000 other people attended the Camp Nou to see the team’s 3-1 victory. Frank Rijkaard against the Getafewhile the audience sang “happy birthday” to Ronaldinhowho turned 26 that day.
Now, Flick’s remarkably young team leads LaLiga with a 100% record and is preparing for his debut in the Champions League as coach of the Barcelona in Monaco, this Thursday (more on that later).
Barcelona’s La Masia players before a LaLiga match David Ramos/Getty Images
Flick He doesn’t know it, but there is a surprise if you compare his situation with that of the Barça team. Rijkaard who was on his way to becoming European champion against the Arsenal in Paris. The context is as follows.
Flick watched as Getafe took a 1-0 lead at Camp Nou that night thanks to a winger who had been the Lamine Yamal/Pedri/Gavi/Pau Cubarsí/Marc Casado of his time. His full name was Fernando Macedo Da Silva Kneeknown as Nano.
While he was at the academy BarcelonaNano lived in La Masia (the academy right next to Camp Nou, where legends like Pep Guardiola and Andres Iniesta (stayed as children) and received individual classes in secondary school with a boy named Mikel Arteta
What has become of that melancholic Basque midfielder? (Hint: his team won the North London derby at the weekend.)
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In 1999, Louis van GaaI give it to her Nano the opportunity to make his debut in the Spanish Super Cup, La Liga and the Champions League, becoming the youngest player to wear the famous Barça shirt in those competitions. At just over 17 years and six months, Nano was able to play.
When Flick He went to Camp Nou 18 years ago as a special guest of Nikewas inspired by an XI of the Barcelona which contained just three Spaniards (compared to seven against Girona on Sunday). The youngest in Rijkaard’s team that night was a 23-year-old Brazilian, Thiago Motta, and the rest were in their 20s. A far cry from Flick’s array of teenagers.
When Nano He was the 17-year-old “child prodigy” of Barcelonathe club secured his future with a multi-million dollar five-year contract, compared to a huge offer from the ArsenalThe Galician teenager spent some of that money on a convertible Mercedes and bought a property in the city. But the night Flick saw him provoke Bernd Schuster’s Getafe, the Catalans and the Atletico Madrid they had already let him go.
Comparisons between that version of the Barcelona and the current one could not be more marked.
Rijkaardback in 2006, I already had Iniesta Lionel Messi but he used each of them conservatively. Don’t worry… it seemed crazy then, not now. Rijkaard didn’t feel the need to take risks. So he didn’t.
In the case of Iniesta, the coach of Barcelona He drove one of the best Spanish footballers to despair and, that same season, left him on the bench in the final of the Champions LeagueNot to mention Messi’s absolute fury when he discovered that Rijkaard had left him out of the squad for that final.
At that time, in the reserve, the club had veterans such as Xavi, Edmilson, Henrik Larsson, Sylvinho and Rafa Marquez. Rijkaard I saw the kids from the youth team as a luxury.
At the end of the 4-1 victory of the Barcelona against Girona on Sunday, among the substitutes not used by Flick There was an 18-year-old goalkeeper born in Miami, a 19-year-old defender and an attacking midfielder who turned 16 last month. The coach had already called up an 18-year-old full-back and two other players who had only played three games for the first team. This in a context in which the starting eleven already included Yamal (17 years old), Pedri (21), Cubarsí (17), Alex Balde (20) and Casadó (who turned 21 last week).
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Flick promoted Guille Fernandez, that 16-year-old kid on the bench I mentioned, into the first team against Girona largely because his cousin Toni Fernandez, a 16-year-old left-footed striker whom most of Europe’s football elite wanted to snatch from the Barcelona This summer, he was suffering from a slight lumbago. Otherwise, Toni, who has scored a goal per game with the Barcelona B This season, he would have been the Fernández of that squad.
The three main questions this inspires are: how does Barcelona’s youth system continue to find and develop such gems when La Masia is suffering from cuts and constant coaching changes? The key is good scouting and brand appeal. But the results remain phenomenal.
Next question: why then does the club sometimes spend so badly in the transfer market when it has a debt of more than 1 billion dollars? Greed, vanity and stupidity, in my opinion.
And how much can we really expect from such a young squad this season? We’ll see on Thursday in Monte Carlo and on Sunday in Villarreal.
Right now, since the latter part of the reign of Ronald Koeman in it Barcelonagoing through the enormous confidence that Xavi placed in Gavi, Pedri and the debuts of Lamine, Balde and Cubarsi, it seems that if you are over 14 years old, can kick the ball straight and are taller than 1.65 metres, you have the chance to train with the first team, and even play.
Not all of the young talents currently wearing the Barcelona first team shirt will make it long-term. But most will and, mark my words, you will soon be admiring the likes of Unai Hernández, Orian Goren and Pedro “Dro” Fernández. Five very special talents, all of them 16 years old, except for Hernández, who is 19.
Nano’s experience in the Barcelona It’s a metaphor for Arteta, Sergio Garcia, Bojan Krkic, Andre Onana, Cesc Fabregas, Gerard Pique, Dani Olmo and Xavi Simons, all of whom, in their day, left their parent clubs ridiculously early because they believed, or were told, that they wouldn’t be given enough trust or playing time.
Notable.
I think that Fabregasa superstar from the youth academy Barcelonawho lifted several trophies in teams with Messi and Piquewho jumped ship to Arsenal because at 16 he had lost faith that he would be promoted to Barça’s first team quickly enough, explains it better than anyone.
He told the BBC last week: “Barcelona’s financial problems forced them to start playing all youngsters. Look at them now – a few years later! Young players keep coming in. Flick keeps putting in two or three more. And after Xavi put Lamine Yamal in the team two years ago, at 15, maybe he’s worth €120m now?
“Clubs and players gain experience in this process, but sometimes it is the coaches who pay the price. When the Chelsea sign players, [Frank] Lampard started playing with youth teams like Mason Mount, Tammy Abraham y Reece JamesWho was sacrificed for the results? Frank Lampard. The kind of time that Arsene Wenger was allowed to show me… that doesn’t exist now. Only when a club is forced to like Barcelona. Then suddenly there are 10 young players aged 16 or 17 who can play in the first team and everyone says ‘how well they are doing’.
Hansi Flick, Barcelona coach AP
“Well no! If the Barcelona If I had hundreds of millions, I would probably invest in the new one Neymar o Ronaldinho“I think there is a lot more potential for players who start younger and younger and who are much more prepared than I was at their age.”
We are all on a journey of discovery. It is extraordinarily rare for one of Europe’s elite clubs to rely so heavily on even sensationally talented young players. And chances for revenge, and chances to meet again, don’t often come within weeks of each other. But that is what is about to happen to Flick and his team.
In the friendly match of the Gamper Tournament, Monaco defeated Barcelona 3-0 and made them look like an inexperienced team. According to the German coach, jet lag and fatigue after the tour of the United States and the transatlantic flights back home were mainly responsible.
Now, 38 days later, Barcelona face the Ligue 1 team again. A horrible pitch at the Louis II stadium, a quality opponent and so many injury problems in the squad Barcelona…what can the Flick boys achieve? Are the boys okay? Their learning, and ours, continues.
