The historic center of Jeddah, a World Heritage Site, invited you to lose yourself in its narrow streets.
In it was
Josep Maria Bartomeu
, who was president of Barcelona, that morning of January 9, 2020 in which the Barça house of cards finally collapsed.
Bartomeu denied.
I was uncomfortable.
And very angry.
Five days earlier, his team had yielded in the derby against Espanyol in Cornellà a draw (2-2) that tasted like a burning horn.
And despite the fact that that overseas Spanish Super Cup with a final four format should not be more than that, the same insipid trophy that used to open the seasons, Bartomeu arrived in Saudi Arabia with the spirit of a cutler.
Yes
Ernesto Valverde
he failed that night in the semifinal against Atlético and there would be no one to save him.
Barcelona, by the way, was still the leader in the League.
It was not difficult for Bartomeu to warm up even more once he arrived at that King Abdullah Stadium where there were rooms for prayer with paintings by
Cristiano Ronaldo
or
Johan Cruyff
.
It was enough for the fans to hear the name of Valverde on the megaphone of the mass to start screaming with fury.
Mobile phones in hand, even some fans tried to hunt down Spanish journalists to say nice things against the Barça coach.
Valverde was the enemy.
And in Jeddah he signed his sentence no matter how much Barcelona played the most stimulating match of the entire season.
The setbacks were too many.
Ter Stegen
, injured, had stayed in Barcelona and allowed the ownership of the nervous
Neto
.
Umtiti
lived an ordeal.
Luis Suárez
played undercover in what was his last game before undergoing surgery.
And
Arturo Vidal was
once again the keystone of the game, with all that this entailed.
But
Messi
ran that night like never before, perhaps aware of what would come next if the team did not save face.
He was happy with Valverde, as much as some heavyweights thought that with
Xavi Hernández
on the bench everything could be better.
The Argentine equalized
Koke's
initial goal
with a right hand.
And the 2-1 would have scored if the VAR had not noticed a hand, a maddening protragonist.
Griezmann
did advance to the Catalans, who would have settled the match if the referee had not annulled another goal, in this case from
Piqué
due to an offside by Arturo Vidal.
In five minutes of exorcism, between 81 and 86, Atlético turned the game around.
That's where Valverde ended.
But also the fictitious stability of the club.
The surreal photo of Grau and Abidal in Doha
The most grotesque episodes followed.
Bartomeu gave the go-ahead to the trip to Doha for
Òscar Grau
, CEO of the entity, and
Eric Abidal
, then technical secretary.
Both went to meet with Xavi to convince him to take the reins immediately.
Valverde was still on the payroll.
What difference does it make.
Jaume Masferrer,
the head of the presidential cabinet and disgraced after
Barçagate
exploded
, tried to make journalists believe that Grau and Abidal were actually in Qatar to visit
Ousmane Dembélé
, who was recovering at the Aspetar clinic.
So the club released a surreal photograph of the three of them, with Grau in jeans and a Sunday polo shirt.
A weekend of negotiations with Xavi was of no use.
Neither was the call made to
Ronald Koeman
, who at that time was still yearning to lead the Netherlands in a European Championship that ended up being postponed due to the pandemic.
The option of
Mauricio Pochettino
, a great friend of Bartomeu and, above all, of
Ramon Planes
- then Abidal's right hand man, now technical secretary - was not adequate because the Argentine had said that he preferred to be a farmer in Murphy rather than train to Barcelona.
The managers were also proposed the name of
Allegri
, although all of them were convinced that there would be no better image campaign than to hire a presumed apostle of
Johan Cruyff
.
At the board meeting they even showed a video with the technical benefits of the new coach.
Quique Setién
, who in his career as a coach had never won a title, was received by nails by a squad that never believed him, did not respect him too much, and who abhorred his assistant,
Eder Sarabia
.
On 2-8 in Lisbon, the social media scandal, the motion of censure and the flight en bloc of the Bartomeu board found a starting point in a trophy, we said, as insipid as the Spanish Super Cup.
Or maybe not so much.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
Know more
Spain Supercup
Arturo vidal
Quique Setien
Ousmane Dembélé
Ronald Koeman
Ter Stegen
Saudi Arabia
Barcelona
Cristiano Ronaldo
Ernesto Valverde
Koke
Luis Suarez
FootballSpanish Super Cup qualifying rounds: Real Madrid - Athletic and Barcelona - Real Sociedad
FútbolMessi and his 'annus horribilis'
LaLigaKroos's derby and Zidane's praise: "Our midfield continues at the level of the three Champions"
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