The Was, Is, and Will be Stars

Futbol is one of the most unpredictable sports. It only takes one game to go from the best to the worst; from a winning streak and calculations of when to celebrate the title to a losing streak in which every hope is lost. This is the nature of this sport and what makes it so beautiful. Barcelona is no different than any other club in this aspect; in fact, the so-demanding crowd is always on top of everything and can go from love to hate in a matter or weeks. If you don’t believe this look at Samuel Eto’o who was booed at home in the last gamer of last year’s season, and now is acclaimed in every game. Every few years Barca crowns a new star and forgets about the previous one; the bests, most of the time, wear the Catalan jersey; for example, Kubala, Cruyff, Romario, Maradona, Ronaldo, Rivaldo among others.

The Was. Ronaldinho Gaucho was less than 14 month ago still the king of Barca. He was a player that with his smile and skills brought faith back to the a team that hadn’t won a title for over five years. In his first year he would do a new trick every week and would make a mediocre team look like a million bucks. In his second year, Rijkaard designed a team around the Brazilian. Eto’o would be the man that would transform every pass from Ronaldinho into a goal; Deco was the man that covered his back; and the scheme was changed to a 4-3-3 where the left wing would be the main weapon of the team with Ronaldinho being unstoppable on the 1 on 1. However, if the rise of Ronaldinho was fast so was his fall. After a dream season in which he conquered the league title and champions league and even getting applauded in the Santiago Bernabeu stadium (something that had never happened) Ronaldinho experienced that the challenge is not getting to the top but staying. Now in Milan he is still a mere shadow of what he was. He no longer creates danger and is very easy to stop in the one on one. Nearly 8 month after his departure it is easy to see that both Txiki and Guardiola were right in excluding the Brazilian from the team.

The Is. When one is gone another comes; with that mentality Barcelona found his new king and they didn’t have to expend millions in this one. Lionel Messi was brought from the junior team at the end of 2004 and as soon as he had his first change he showed Barcelona what he was capable of; the next year he even took the place of veteran Giuly who had to sit down and watch how a 19 year old boy outplayed him. Now, with Ronaldinho gone Messi has become the new king; and not because Barca needed to fill that position but because he has earned it. Right now Messi is the best player in the world. He is like a formula one car that goes directly to the end line to win. It only takes him seconds to plan a play that will end at least on a change of scoring. His weak point has been the constant muscular injuries but Guardiola, up until now, has managed him well to avoid this injuries. Messi needs to learn from Ronalinho and realize that the challenge was not getting there but staying. Only time will tell how long will this king last.

The Will Be. It is impossible to predict the future and what will happen. It is impossible to know what will happen with Messi. However, Barcelona has learnt the lesson with Ronaldinho and will probably manage better the Argentinean. Regardless, there is somebody that will headline the news in the very near future along or without Messi. That is, Bojan. Krkic. The young half Spanish and half Serbian striker breaths goal; he’s the kind of striker that doesn’t need to shine too much to show his talent and can appear in a game in just seconds. He has something different from Eto’o ; Bojan is an area predator he knows where he has to be. Last year he was given a responsibility bigger than his chances when he had to carry a team that was in the process of decomposition. This year he’s been managed more accordingly with his age and experience. Barcelona has found out their future number 9. Give him 2 years.