On August 24, 2022, there was a meeting at Camp Nou. Old friends reunited for a good cause: barcelona and city of manchester were playing in a friendly to raise funds for ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) research after former Barça player and assistant coach Juan Carlos Unzue was diagnosed with the neurodegenerative disease.
It was Xavi’s first clash against Pep Guardiola on the touchline, as Guardiola returned to the Camp Nou bench for the first time since 2016. It was also a special day for Sergio Busquets.
After the match, the Barcelona captain was seen chatting with several members of Guardiola’s backstage team. Some of them were part of the coaching staff that gave Busquets his Barcelona debut in 2008 – Busquets was a member of Barcelona’s B-team when Guardiola started his coaching career in 2007.
In addition to remembering the golden era of Barça in which they participated, Busquets confessed to some of his old friends that he imagined that this would be his last season at the club. With his contract expiring the following summer, the 34-year-old had been earning interest from abroad, soccer major league. Fifteen seasons after its debut, it felt right to call it a day.
Less than six months after that, though, things changed.
Busquets is about to make his 700th appearance for Barcelona, a milestone he will reach if he plays against Real Betis in the semi-final of the Supercopa de España on Thursday, where the Catalans will try to take home the first trophy of the season.
There are only two players in Barcelona history with more games than him. One of them is his current coach and former teammate Xavi (767 caps). the other is Lionel Messi (778 appearances).
Busquets’ club legend status is unquestioned but, at 34, he is still a key part of the club’s squad, and Xavi will work hard to convince him to stay beyond this season.
Busquets has the fifth-most first-team minutes of all players on the team this season. Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Pedri, Robert Lewandowski and Ousmane Dembele are the only players with more playing time.
He is still preferred over the youngest Gavi or jong frenkie, the latter of whom is poised to be a suitable successor and has been performing at a decent level as a midfielder. But Xavi still believes there is no one in the squad who can offer what Busquets currently offer and reiterated this ahead of Barcelona’s clash with Betis.
“He is a key part of the team — the captain, [a] key figure for the dressing room”, said Xavi. “He is an example of professionalism, of commitment. This is priceless. From a tactical point of view, he is practically perfect.
“He will define an era with his positions. There will be a time before Busquets and after Busquets in sport. He will be a reference for any player in our system.”
Busquets challenge Antoine Griezmann during last week’s La Liga clash (Photo: Angel Martinez via Getty Images)
Since Joan Laporta became Barça president again in 2021, planning life after Busquets has been on the to-do list, but the club are finding it difficult to agree on who is the best replacement for the midfielder.
On the one hand, Laporta and its executive team, with key figures such as sporting director Mateu Alemany among them, have been considering the candidacy of Wolverhampton Wanderers midfielder Ruben Neves.
Neves, 25, will enter the final year of his contract with Wolves next summer. His agent is Jorge Mendes, who has a close relationship with Laporta that began nearly 20 years ago, when the president won the Barcelona election for the first time; the relationship has been cemented more recently with Mendes representing several of the club’s brightest talents such as Ansu Fati, Alejandro Bucket and Nico González.
Mendes offered Neves to Barcelona, and it is understood that the agent would help make the transfer viable considering club’s financial difficulties. But there is another group of people within the club who doubt whether Neves is the right person for the job.
Xavi and his backroom team prefer a different player, according to sources close to the club, who want anonymity to protect their jobs. Your preferred candidate is real societyin Martin Zubimendi.
Two years younger than Neves, Zubimendi has had an excellent season at Real Sociedad, his boyhood club. He is considered more used to playing as a sole midfielder, having shone in Spain’s youth system, and his skill set is considered to be more similar to Busquets.
Zubimendi does have a problem though, and that is its price. His release clause is set at €60m and Real Sociedad has no intention of accepting any offer that falls short of the full amount.
the athleticspanish football coverage expanded…
Zubimendi agreed to a contract extension in October last year and secured a pay rise, but his release clause has remained unchanged. By signing this deal, Real Sociedad hinted that it would not keep its jewel at all costs, but that it hopes to get the right price for it.
For Barcelona, €60m is not the right price. Spending that sum on a promising player who has yet to prove himself at club and country is seen as too much of a risk by Barça – even with Xavi’s blessing.
This is the crossroads where the Catalans find themselves. Asked about the situation, Laporta admitted last week that he still needs to have more conversations within the club before making a decision.
“Neves is a great player and we know he is represented by Jorge Mendes. “Furthermore, all the news [stories] they are rumors and noise. We need to continue having internal discussions because we know that Busquets will not be eternal.”
In the meantime, trying to convince Busquets to extend his journey at the club seems like a sensible decision, and club sources have confirmed to the the athletic that they are exploring new possibilities for their future.
Barcelona are aware that their captain is in contact with MLS side Inter Miami about a possible signing and at the start of the year there were three possible scenarios for Busquets’ immediate future.
The first, possibly the most improbable at the moment, was to let him go in January. His departure would have relaxed the salary limit of the club established by the La Ligawhile fulfilling his ambition to play in the MLS and joining his new club during pre-season.
However, the short-term needs of Xavi’s team meant that path was impossible.
The second path, and the most logical option, was to keep Busquets until the end of the season and release him at zero cost at the end of his contract, if he so wished.
But Barcelona will sit down with Busquets and discuss the third option, in which Xavi will play an important role: convincing him to stay. Laporta hinted that he might be on the same page as the coach.
“I believe that Busquets can still go on,” he said, before adding: “If we agree to any contract extension with Busi, I’m sure it will be for a year. At the end of the season, we will talk for sure.”
The challenge is how they convince Busquets after he told his old friends in that friendly that he hoped this would be his last year at the club. Lifting the Super Cup in Saudi Arabia could be the first step towards that.
(All images, left to right: Juan Manuel Serrano Arce, David Ramos and Naomi Baker, all via Getty Images)
.
Comments
Post a Comment