Life After Lionel Messi in Barcelona Under the Fairy of the Past


BARCELONA – By even the most benevolent estimate, Camp Nou is a little over a third full when the teams take the field. The Champions League anthem plays and drowns out the thin applause that greets the players. Fans lined up in rows of sun-bleached rows of seats stretching into the sky, lost in the vast stadium.

Barcelona’s motto, on the other hand, is self-expression — més que un club – written on the seats. The inscriptions are still legible as the players take their positions and disperse.

On the left, a yellow patch has spread over the second tier of the arena, which once had a club sponsor’s logo. No one bothered to change the seats that once posted the company name. Instead, the club painted its surroundings the same color, rebranding, leaving a stain that should erase the past but only serve as a reminder.

In Barcelona’s defence, there are extenuating circumstances for participation. It’s only been a week since Catalonian authorities decided that the stadium could operate at full capacity; In a city cautiously emerging from the coronavirus pandemic, perhaps not many fans are ready to return.

Prices are also high—as high as before; It seems that they are not about performance – and for now, there aren’t many tourists making the long-awaited pilgrimage to the Camp Nou and preparing to pay them. Locals may also have struggled with timing: the early evening start time on Wednesday meant rushing to the stadium after work.

The latecomers eventually push the crowd size up to 45,000, but that does little to improve the atmosphere or the impression. This is a crucial match for Barcelona: failing to beat Dynamo Kiev means they will likely not reach the qualifying stages of the Champions League, for the first time since 2003.

This failure does more damage than the pride of the club. The team was “technically bankrupt” in March, according to CEO Ferran Reverter. He needs revenue from a deep run in the Champions League – at least as deep as he can go. For that, he needs his fans.

But they still didn’t show up, just like they didn’t show up for the league game against Valencia a few days ago. Even the sales of Real Madrid’s arch-rival Clásico were sluggish this weekend. Camp Nou was the hottest ticket in town. Barcelona was the team everyone wanted to watch. The fall after Lionel Messi is now a far less attractive prospect, as it could offer the chance to witness the harsh reality of life.

Outside of Camp Nou, in the quiet streets of Les Corts – the neighborhood dominated by and synonymous with club and stadium – this fact hasn’t exactly sunk in. Stalls and shops selling Barcelona goods are full of unofficial blaugranas memories are still adorned with his name, his face.

There are Messi kits: this season and last season and even older. Messi has bobbleheads. There are Messi pencil cases, key chains and magnets. There are haunting, enigmatic babies who look like some kind of votive Messi. Taken together, it coincides with the clearance sale of Barcelona’s recent memory. It’s a simple economy of course – they have stocks so they should all go – but it’s also a constant, painful reminder of what Barcelona has and what it has lost.

But there are occasional glimpses of something different, a desire to look forward rather than backward. Given all that Barcelona has endured over the past year – A callous farewell to Luis Suárez with Messi’s lossan encompassing journey impeachment of a president, a contentious choice, financial disaster, one continued loyalty To the European Super League, as conceived by Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez, and all sorts of embarrassment along the way – the idea that this could be a promising place seems very unlikely.

And yet, somehow, it is. Aside from Messi, 24-year-old Dutch midfielder Frenkie de Jong is the name most frequently used in jerseys outside the stadium. His face is from a large billboard surrounding the front of the Camp Nou, among other great hope for the heart of the team: Pedri, an 18-year-old with extraordinary poise, signed from Las Palmas for $6 million.

When the teams were announced before the Champions League game on Wednesday, the last name to be read received by far the loudest cheer. Pedri may be missing from an injury, but with only a handful of appearances under his belt, 17-year-old Gavi begins. Gavi is so young, so fresh that counterfeiters have yet to start making copies of his jersey.

There is also a cheer in the middle of the first half when Ansu Fati appears on the sidelines to warm up. Fati is 18 years old on his way back from a season lost due to injury, but has already been chosen as the club’s savior.

Inside slippery video The club advertised its plan for the $1.7 billion renovation of the Camp Nou and its surroundings last week – a project called Espai Barça and something Barcelona officials insist wouldn’t jeopardize the club’s fragile finances – with the final scene held in a Clásico new stadium. (For some reason the game is in the Champions League instead of La Liga.)

As the music swells, a commentator says Fati scored the winning goal. After Messi left, the club upgraded Fati’s squad number. She wears number 10 this year. None of this iconography is subtle.

Shortly after the Kiev game, club president Joan Laporta was one step closer to making this animation a reality, confirming that Fati had signed a new contract. This was the easy part of course – easier than renovating the stadium – but it was still a step in the right direction. The new contract links Fati to Barcelona until 2027.

Pedri had accepted one of his own friends just a few weeks ago; will be here until at least 2026. Both agreed to release the items for $1.16 billion each (the amount Barcelona would actually have to sell). Laporta is determined not to repeat the mistakes of the previous regime, those who lost Neymar and eventually Messi.

Barcelona knows these young players have a future. Alongside Pedri, Gavi, de Jong, and Fati, as well as central defender Eric García, Uruguayan defender Ronald Araújo, and Dutch-born US fullback Sergiño Dest, the outlines of a team are starting to emerge, a sketch. about what tomorrow might look like.

However, Barcelona is not yet ready to let go, to accept that one era is over and another must begin. In the same video, the computer-generated team taking to the pitch, promoting the stadium befitting Barcelona’s status as “the best club in the world”, is led by its current captain, Sergio Busquets. Espai Barça is scheduled to be completed in 2025. By then, Busquets will be 37.

For now, it’s a club stuck between two worlds, trapped in a land of desolation between the comfort of the past and the promise of the future. Barcelona barely beat Dynamo Kiev thanks to a goal from Gerard Piqué, another member of the former guard, but they worked all night to do it. There was silent applause at the end: not celebrating a victory, but avoiding another trap.

Barcelona may yet – only – qualify for the Champions League qualifying rounds in the spring, but no one seems to be enjoying it much, this flooding, wishing these days, this unhappy purgatory now.

What will come after that, everyone knows, most likely will not be able to experience what was before. Tomorrow won’t be as good as yesterday. They will sell Messi jerseys outside this stadium for years. However, there is hope that no matter how weak it is, it will at least be enough to draw the crowd once again.





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