A year ago, the Russian tanks were a stone's throw from Kyiv, a European capital, with the same modernities, shops and supermarkets as Barcelona. There was one, convinced that the invaders would break the siege and take the city, silent and absent. Meanwhile, the lives of the few who remained in Kyiv entered a great black hole: the certainty that everything was possible. The end of the security of a peaceful, gentrified, Western life...
Saving the distances, of course, many Barcelona fans began to understand the dimension of the problem when all of San Mamés – they have never had much affection for Barça – chanted “Second Division, oé!”, which has been heard so many times at the Camp Nou. There is a day when the bell tolls and it is for you, as a finalist from the Planet would say.
For the first time in history –or the second since 1942–, FC Barcelona is going to hear, game after game, a song destined for the outcasts. Like the war in Ukraine: Europe believed itself safe from repeating its history. And the bad thing, for Barça, is that it is not an insult but a plausible hypothesis.
The only good news about afer Enríquez Negreira –a man of afers and affairs, in the old sense of the word– is that the first football team is growing in the face of adverse weather and an environment that will be more hostile every day, especially if that ruin of the board of directors of FC Barcelona continues to evade the obligation to give explanations –whatever they may be– and present excuses –whatever they touch– to their fans.
Helpless by the club, Xavi and the squad are defending, really, not paying lip service, this shield. I already know that there is a purist current – anchored in the glorious past that will not return – that finds objections to this streak of victories by the minimum. I find it gratifying and worthwhile.
The victories at the Bernabéu and San Mamés are extraordinary. With weight losses and in stadiums where the final arreones have knocked down many greats, the first team of FC Barcelona has known how to resist based on the virtues that allow them to survive in a war. Solidarity, determination to get ahead and the conviction to defend something worthy.
Something is something: the footballers – whose whims destabilized the club's economy after Neymar's fright – are now upholding the club's honor. In hours of embarrassment and discouragement, finally, well-paid professionals do not behave like mercenaries. The roles have been reversed. Board embarrassment, pride for those who sweat the shirt.
