In the business of grooming modern footballers, it must be an advantage to position an academy several distractions away from the heart of a chic, sun-kissed city. Barcelona’s youth department lies off the beaten track, tucked away in the rural outskirts. Their base is called La Masia, which means ”the farmhouse”. It is clearly a fertile spot for breeding.
Two boys who grew up together at La Masia commanded the Champions League stage on two sensational nights last week. They are aged 18 and they were brave enough to move to a new country to further their football careers before the hint of a teenage growth spurt. They have grasped their chances with eye-catching wit, character and maturity.
Although Francesc Fabregas waltzed out of the Bernabeu with praise ringing in his ears and Lionel Messi escaped Stamford Bridge with a minder watching his back, the consequences were the same: welcome to the seriously big time.
Fabregas and Messi, whose friendship dates back to PlayStation sessions at the farmhouse, reached that moment when a budding career leaps into the deep end.
They have gone beyond the compulsion to measure them by their youthfulness. They are that good already. That they proved it at the two richest clubs in Europe is particularly satisfying.
It was comical to see Real Madrid take one close look at Fabregas before hurrying to fuel a bandwagon with speculation that he is a transfer target.
The next night it was fun imagining how Roman Abramovich might have assessed Messi’s worth. But prising either prodigy from their clubs would be a tall order.
Fabregas is contracted to Arsenal until 2011 and acts as if he cannot believe his luck. Messi’s present deal takes him up to 2014 and contains a buyout clause as staggeringly prohibitive as Ronaldinho’s — more than £100-million.
The vultures may as well swoop off.
This is the fifth arrangement struck between Barcelona and Messi, so conscious are they of protecting their jewel. Five years ago, so the story goes, it was in the restaurant of a tennis club that Barcelona secured the signature of a tiny yet hugely beguiling Argentine boy on the back of a napkin. Charly Rexach, Barca’s sporting director at the time, had sensed that the youngster’s representative was having second thoughts. After all, Messi was only 13, and to uproot and cross the Atlantic was a life-changing decision. Rexach asked a waiter for something on which to scribble out a makeshift contract. As he recalls: ”I wrote something like, ‘As sporting director of the club, I guarantee that the club will assume all responsibility for the Messi family if they come to live in Barcelona and the kid joins the club.”’
If Barcelona had shown half as much determination with one of his peers, they would have two of the most talented teenagers in world football.
Fabregas is the one that got away.
Fabregas and Messi complemented each other well. ”We won everything together in our age group and we used to love playing one-twos on the pitch. We had a great understanding,” recalls Fabregas.
Coming from a family of Nou Camp season-ticket holders, Fabregas did not find it easy to bid farewell to his friends at La Masia. But his bold choice was vindicated last week.
As he trotted off when he was substituted in the dying seconds, a spontaneous ovation cascaded around the Bernabeu. What an accolade. In his first match as a professional footballer in his homeland he had earned the instant respect of his compatriots.
Fabregas has already played almost 100 games for Arsenal. He appreciates the equality he enjoyed at Highbury from day one, saying: ”I never trained with the first team at Barcelona, but I’ve spoken to Messi. He says if you do something wrong, everyone says, ‘He’s young, it’s OK.’ It’s not like that here. Here, you’re treated like all the other players.”
Playing at Real was an essential rite of passage for this determined and intelligent young man. ”I really wanted to show people that I could play here,” he said. ”I hope I’ll be able to go to the World Cup and the Champions League final.”
It was impressive to see how he kept his composure after the Bernabeu scalping.
Fabregas had time for a short reunion with his family before flying back to his digs in London. A self-sufficient young man, he is ready for independence and is soon to move into his first home.
Protecting Messi has always been an issue. When he arrived in Spain he was 1,38m and the fact that his feet did not reach the ground when he sat on the bench has become the stuff of legend, earning him the nickname ”The Flea”. His size was the result of a hormone deficiency that was extremely expensive to treat in Argentina. His boyhood club, Newell’s Old Boys, would not pay for the daily injections, but Barcelona would.
The move from Argentina had positive and negative effects on Messi’s footballing progress. The back-up, in terms of medical support and coaching facilities, was a plus. But on the downside, he was prevented from playing in tournaments reserved for Spanish boys and endured long periods when he was eligible only for friendlies.
At first, speaking only Argentine slang — and not much of that — Messi struggled to mix. He would sit silently in the dressing room, change and leave. ”He made a big impression on me, but he was very shy and that complicated his integration,” said Fabregas. ”We thought he was dumb. Until, being kids and thanks to PlayStation, we discovered he could talk.”
Fast-forward a few years and Messi is welcomed to the table of the Nou Camp’s Brazilian clan, who banter that he is the only Argentine they will put up with. Ronaldinho calls him ”my little brother”, Sylvinho looks after him like a second father and Deco takes him out shopping or to the hairdresser (perhaps as an elaborate joke, judging from the boy’s unruly mop).
Messi was the talk of Argentina before he was a fixture for Barcelona. After his heroics at the under-20 World Cup in 2005, a poll concluded that almost 90% of Argentines wanted him in the senior team as quickly as possible. Once back in Barcelona, somebody handed him a phone.
”They said that it was Diego Maradona on the other end,” Messi said. ”I thought they were joking with me, but I still took the phone … ‘Hello, Leo, this is little Diego.’ I couldn’t speak. I didn’t know what to say. I was in shock. Him calling me? As I held the mobile I looked in the mirror on the wall and I could see that my eyes were full of tears, so it was hard to speak even when I regained my composure a little bit. What a fantastic moment.”
Maradona invited him on to his television show, La Noche del Diez, and gave him a Davina-esque introduction. ”Everybody who loves Argentine football should be proud of him. He will inherit my place in Argentine football and his name is Messi!” He and another young gun, Carlos Tevez, then played head tennis against Maradona and fellow golden oldie Enzo Francescoli. And they won.
Life has been moving fast enough for Messi, so a few angry words from Jose Mourinho will not disturb him. ”I want to stay at Barcelona for the next 10 years and become an idol of the fans,” he said. — Â