Barcelona fell humiliated in the Champions League 1-4. In 2018, they lost 3-0 in Rome after winning 4-1. In 2019, they fell 4-0 at Liverpool after a 3-0 in favor. In 2020, 8-2 against Bayern Munich. It is the story of a team that is dying since they lifted the Champions League in 2015.
In 2017 he had already lost 4–0 in Paris. But between the scare of PSG and some dubious penalty, he came back and then fell 3-0 humiliated by Juventus. Neymar was still there. It was not the departure of the Brazilian that killed Barcelona, it was the arrival of Bartomeu as president in 2015.
Bartomeu came to the presidency in 2014, after the resignation of Rosell cornered by legal problems. In 2015 they won the Champions League. Then the Catalan voters did not see what those of Madrid did in 2000. That year Lorenzo Sanz, winner of two Champions League (1998 and 2000), and Florentino Pérez stood in the elections. Those of us who saw that champion Madrid in 1998 and 2000 remember a poor playing team. The almighty white had not won the league for three years and was one step away from being left out of the Champions League.
One of those trophies, won with more grit than football, saved him from the humiliation of having to play a minor tournament in Europe.
In 2015, Barcelona still reigned in Spain (and Europe) thanks to a trident, about which Piqué once said: “It is incredible that they let Neymar, Suárez and Messi play in the same team.” However, the team already lived on the legacy left by Guardiola’s great team. There was no one capable of understanding that it is easier to renew when you are up than when you are down.
The years do not pass in vain, and if in Spain they still managed to succeed, if Messi still made a difference, Europe, year after year, told them that what they had was insufficient. Each year there were less than the previous one. Messi is, after Pelé, the greatest thing to ever walk on a football field. Against certain rivals, he managed to keep the Barça team with his goals. But in none of those European defeats did we see a glorious soccer Messi come out. What’s more, in none of those games did we see Messi. As it happened with Maradona’s Napoli in the two European Cups they played, to defeat the greatest, it takes more than a ball genius.
Meanwhile, Bartomeu wasted money, without rhyme or reason, without plan, without strategy, without ideas. Bartomeu is to Rosell what Maduro is to Chávez. A bad president can always be beaten by a worse one. The perfect recipe to sink a giant.
Messi will leave. His best years are over, but as a complement to an armed team, he will still be decisive. By the way, the slow death of Barça will be over. It will have to be reborn from the ashes. Well managed it will be five years. Until a new Ronaldinho arrives.
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