Pau Gasol

has finally put on the Barça shirt.

For now, only in his official presentation, but his return to the field is getting closer and closer.

It is not the same as 20 years ago, no clothes have hurt when confessing it.

But his contribution can be tremendously decisive, according to the former Barcelona coach Joan Montes, who supervised his beginnings at the Barça club.

"He has an age, but he is also a better person. If we expected him to have the physical level he was at 20 years old, the ones who would be confused would be us. Maybe he is there to play a few minutes, but it is also true that there are tennis players from great level that they are around 40 years old and that they are still in the Top-10 ", he highlights.

Whether or not this second stage will be extended depends on the player himself: "He knows better than anyone if he can perform at 100% when the time comes. If we were talking about another player, he might not say so, but Pau is very intelligent, and it is his intelligence what, ultimately, will decide what he is going to do. There are players, for example, who have continued until they are 42 or 43 years old ".

Your experience, right now, is perhaps your best asset.

"Above all, he can provide advice in the dressing room. Marc Gasol, for example, is not that good now physically either, but they are people who understand the game better and better. Having Pau is like having a coach on the track who can run , pass and define understanding the game a lot, "says the former coach.

And at all levels.

"He will undoubtedly be a key figure, for the less veteran and also for the veterans. He is Pau, a person who has won everything. The advice he gives, everyone will listen to him. In the NBA he has been highly valued by players of the highest level. level, like

Kobe Bryant

. He understands the game more than anyone, he was already doing it when he was young ", emphasizes a Joan Montes who remembers very well how his appearance in the first team was conceived.

"I made him train with the first team, it was

Aíto

, later, who made him debut, because I convinced him to do it. At the time, he was not very in favor of putting it on, but I told him about it and, when did he see him train , he realized that he was a player for the first team, "he explains.

"I saw that he was a person who, at his age, understood basketball very well, a very coordinated player and who could become decisive in the future. He had many possibilities of being a great player. Although, to tell the truth, he has been much better player than everyone thought at the time. He was a rough diamond and has been polished very well, "he reiterates.

Now, come back to fight for the Euroleague.

A title that, perhaps, could have already achieved in its first stage if things had been different.

"The negotiation, at the time, was not the ideal one. They did not want to pay what, in reality, was already worth. With Barça, they might have gotten a European Cup or two if the contract had been done well at the time. Then, he asked for amounts that he thought he deserved and Barça thought that, with his youth, it was not good to pay them. Perhaps the two positions made a lot of sense, but at that moment I was in favor of Pau ", reveals the former Barcelona coach.

Right now, without a doubt, Barça is perhaps the great favorite to take the title this season.

"The team is playing in an extraordinary way. If it continues to improve, it will be European champion, for sure. In all seasons there are ups and downs, if it continues up there it will achieve it, but, if there is a downturn, it will not be Pau's fault," he says.

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