I apologize in advance. Some readers/friends criticize me for dedicating this noble space of the director’s note, created by Joan Tapia in 1989, to talk about Barça. That the role expected of me today is to comment on the latest news about the hantavirus, the final week of the elections in Andalusia, or some new idea born in the White House. I’m sorry. I can’t. A few hours have passed, but the most important thing for me today is the joy felt by thousands and thousands of people for the league won by Barça and the way they did it, beating their eternal rival in the stadium and, let me say it, sparing their life with a fair 2-0. And at a moment like this, of total crisis for Real Madrid, it is only fair to remember that the league was won against a team that has 15 European Cups in its trophy case.
Whether they are culés or not, whether they are football fans or not, come in and enjoy the special supplement we publish today, prepared by the Sports team, led by Joanjo Pallàs, in which the central element is the club’s player factory, the
Masia. Barça has won its second consecutive league with an insultingly young team and with a base of players created in its youth academy who have grown up together. There is a present, but above all there is a future. And here it is important to highlight the work of Hansi Flick, the German coach who arrived quietly and with the handicap of having inflicted an 8-2 defeat on Barça in a Champions quarter-final match in Lisbon. Flick is now revered by the fans, as was evident in Sunday’s clásico, where he also received heartfelt support from the culés for the recent death of his father.
Flick has known how to bring out the best in these players, which has been enough to win two leagues in a row, but the big challenge next year will be the Champions League. As was seen yesterday in the parade through the streets of Barcelona, there is a great connection between these young players and the fans. The feeling is that these great stars are, deep down, as passionate as we are. Yes, yes, they are very good, but deep down it is as if they were one of us.
