BARCELONA // When Spanish champions Atletico Madrid visit Barcelona on Sunday night in Spain’s most eagerly awaited game since the clasico, the reaction at the final whistle is unlikely to be as it was when Diego Simeone’s side last visited Camp Nou.
Last May, Barcelona fans applauded newly-crowned champions Atletico off the pitch before booing their own players for a limp end to a disappointing season. Barca president Josep Bartomeu promised “profound changes” at a club staggering from one scandal to another.
Cesc Fabregas and Alexis Sanchez departed, while long-time captain Carles Puyol moved upstairs to assist Andoni Zubizarreta as the club’s sporting director. Former player Luis Enrique was appointed as manager, but the turbulence that blighted Barca in 2014 did not stop.
Problems came to a head with last Sunday’s 1-0 defeat at David Moyes’ well-organised Real Sociedad side.
Zubizarreta, a former Barca goalkeeper, was dismissed from his position – to the delight of fans who blamed him for an inconsistent transfer policy that saw Barca choose not to buy a much-needed central defender for three years and then sign the injured Thomas Vermaelen, who has yet to play a game.
Zubizarreta was also the sporting director when the club were banned from making transfers until 2016 for breaching Fifa regulations. He maintains that he knew nothing about what was going on. People close to the club say that everyone at Camp Nou knew what was going on.
Lionel Messi has been at the centre of the storm.
A commander in the shadows who says little but wields – and is indulged with – significant power, he has had issues with every manager at Camp Nou, plus the players he is asked to play alongside. In Messi’s view, it is because he has a continual pursuit of excellence. Others do not see it like that, but Messi remains the most important man at Camp Nou.
His coach Enrique always lavishes praise on him publicly, but there has been tension between the pair – which is denied by the club. Despite being linked with a move away, Messi is more likely to be there next season than Enrique.
No president wants to be the man who sells one of the world’s best players when he is in his 20s, though club elections have been called a year early for this June.
Former president Joan Laporta, with whom Messi largely enjoyed good relations, is favourite to return.
He will like the challenge of attempting to restore order to a club that often appears to be at war with both itself and authority and at odds with its ethically pure image of being “more than a club”.
Messi’s people stir things up with demands for new contracts every year, but he himself has experienced several lows in the last year at Barca – including injuries, no trophies and the departures of his friends Fabregas and Jose Manuel Pinto.
He flies to Zurich on Monday to see rival Cristiano Ronaldo presented with the Ballon d’Or, but Messi is largely for staying where he is loved. And Barcelona’s fans adore Messi. They sing his name at every game and pressure anyone who criticises him. It is an almost unconditional love.
Messi is set to play his 450th Barca game. He scored his 423rd career goal in Thursday’s 5-0 Copa del Rey win against Elche, but that was watched by just 27,000, Barca’s lowest crowd of the season. A 10pm kick off for a mid-winter game played two days after the holiday period finished did not help.
Sunday night’s crowd is expected to be closer to 90,000 when Messi will come up against Atletico’s exceptional Koke, the only man to have more assists than him in the Primera Liga this season.
Atletico were the beneficiaries of both Barca and Real Madrid losing league games last weekend. The champions are level on 38 points with Barca and a point behind their neighbours, whom they beat 2-0 in a Copa del Rey first leg in midweek.
Atletico were worthy champions, and while their form is not quite as spectacular as last season, they have the experience that comes with winning the league. When he was not talking politics this week, Bartomeu claimed Atletico were favourites for tonight’s game at the Camp Nou.
They are not, but Barca were unable to overcome Diego Simeone’s side in six thrilling encounters last year. Not for nothing is Sunday night’s encounter so eagerly awaited.
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