Messi (70 page)

After Pep and Leo’s conversations in front of a computer screen, the idea was clear: it was the ideal tactical solution to that match. ‘In a chat before the game, Pep told us how Leo was going to play,’ remembers Piqué. ‘I don’t think we even managed to practise during the week. Leo was going to play as a false number nine, and Samuel [Eto’o] on the wing.’

Pep Guardiola did not invent the concept of the false number 9, nor did he ever claim to have done so. It was born in the famous Hungary team of the Fifties with Nándor Hidegkuti. Alfredo Di Stéfano was the complete player who also caused damage from a false striker’s position (he was also a false central midfielder, a false winger …). Rinus Michels occasionally gave Johan Cruyff that role in the Seventies and it was brought back by Michael Laudrup in the Dream Team with Johan Cruyff on the bench and a young Pep Guardiola at number 4.

Silvinho remembers that many things were worked on in the days leading up to the match: ‘There was a strategy, play down the wing with Thierry, Samuel’s movement. All of us – and I mean Guardiola, the squad, the group – outlined a great match. We went 1–0 down and it seemed that everything was going down the drain …’

And there was an extra factor to be considered: before the game the senior players reminded Leo and the squad not to seek revenge for the guard of honour they had been obliged to form for the new champions at the Bernabéu the previous season. But Leo and those who had played that day could not hide the festering wound. ‘It was a thorn in our sides,’ Messi told
La Gazzetta dello Sport
. ‘In fact, more so for the poor result and the way we lost, than for the humiliation of the guard of honour.’ That night Barcelona lost 4–1 to the league champions. The thorn was about to be extracted.

In the idea that Pep had with Leo, the coach explained to him that placing him in the centre would create doubts among the central defenders. If one of them pressured him there the chance would always remain for a one on one with the other defender, either from the forwards or from Leo himself should he be able to get past the first centre-back. ‘The plan worked brilliantly,’ remembers Piqué. ‘Madrid never considered this possibility, the defenders couldn’t come out, and didn’t know what to do, and as a result Leo had masses of space to turn into and run at them.’

‘The dressing room was like a madhouse,’ remembers Silvinho. ‘I celebrated as much as those who had played. It was enormously satisfying for the whole team. What we had worked for, studied, talked about, had all been achieved in ninety minutes of perfect football.’

The tactical change had come off. Leo went back to the wing and his position as a false number 9 would not reappear until the Champions League final against Manchester United.

Alex Ferguson prepared himself to face the usual Barcelona precisely at the moment when they had decided to stop being the usual Barcelona.

5. CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL AGAINST MANCHESTER UNITED AND THE 2009 FIFA CLUB WORLD CUP. SIX OUT OF SIX

In the second leg of the Champions League semi-final against Chelsea, Barcelona employed an attack with Iniesta on the left, Eto’o
down the middle and Leo starting wide right but moving with freedom, the focal point of the attacks. The 0–0 draw in the first leg at the Camp Nou made the match at Stamford Bridge even more difficult when Michael Essien scored after eight minutes and Éric Abidal was sent off after sixty-six. Guus Hiddink probably sent out the wrong message when he replaced Didier Drogba with defender Juliano Belletti twenty minutes from the end. The initiative was with Barcelona in any case, even though they were not creating chances. It was a very tense encounter. In the ninety-third minute, with time almost up, Messi passed to Iniesta who, with a stunning strike from outside the box that finally beat Chelsea’s formidable defence, added another page to the club’s history.

Barcelona had to play the Copa del Rey final against Athletic de Bilbao before the Champions League final. They were on route for glory, three steps away from the extraordinary feat of winning everything that season. ‘On Wednesday 13 May,’ explains Luis Martín in
El País
, ‘when the team was leaving the ground to catch a plane to Valencia, where the Copa del Rey final would be played that night, Iniesta, who had remained in Barcelona recovering from an injury, went up to Messi and said: “Bring me the cup and I will get you the Ballon d’Or in Rome.”’

It was the first final with Leo in the line-up since breaking into the first team. Barcelona won by an emphatic 4–1, but Athletic opened the scoring. Leo was involved in three of the four goals, scoring one himself to make it 2–1 in a piece of play that would be repeated many times thereafter. On the ball in the area, he dummied and kept possession until finding the gap between dozens of legs to get it past the opposition’s defence.

Three days later, Barcelona were crowned league champions without even touching a ball against Mallorca. Real Madrid had lost at Villarreal and were eight points behind the leaders with two games left to play: the eternal rivals had surrendered following that
blaugrana
masterclass at the Bernabéu. Barça won the fifth double of their history.

Cristiano Ronaldo’s Manchester United awaited them in the Champions League final in Rome.

Two main things were said about that match. Manchester United were clear favourites (according to the English press) and the two best players in the world were going to go head-to-head. ‘Without
doubt the best two at the moment, they’ve had fantastic seasons,’ said Sir Alex Ferguson. ‘Alex prefers Ronaldo, we prefer Leo,’ added Pep. ‘How interesting to have both in a final,’ concluded the Scot.

The public and especially the media have since decided that the only possible relationship between Leo and Cristiano is one of hatred. In a Twitter-obsessed, 140-character long, black and white world, there is hardly room for anyone else. Whenever they crossed paths that night in Rome, however, they showed that mixture of feelings that exist between nemeses, those rivals you have to overcome but who make you improve. There is no affection, but neither is there contempt. Arrogant and barbed comments about one another are all part of the performance, but their private relationship is one of mutual respect.

In
El País
Luis Martín recalls an anecdote that took place twenty-four hours before the game. ‘Messi couldn’t believe what he saw when he arrived at the hotel on Tuesday. He phoned Estiarte. “Can you come to my room? I have a problem.” Guardiola’s guardian angel has spread his wings to protect all his friend’s pupils in any way possible. So he rushed there at once, anxious, fearing that something had happened that he would be unable to deal with, because Messi never complains. “Look, Manel, there’s no bed,” Leo told him. Estiarte breathed a sigh of relief: the problem had a solution. Player liaison man Carlos Naval took care of the matter.’

Otherwise, Leo was walking up and down the corridors of the team’s hotel with his ticket for the final booked as if nothing unusual was occurring. ‘In reality everything was normal as usual, up until the match, a day like any other. We were very calm and confident in our own ability,’ Messi said days after. He knew that people were saying he had not yet been able to score against an English team. He accepted the challenge.

‘We tried out the false number nine option in training the days before the final,’ remembers Pedro. ‘Pep told us it was the best way to beat them because they had two very tall centre-backs who didn’t come out to press very much. In that central space, Leo could pick up the ball and create danger.’

Leo, noticing his family and best friends sitting next to the rest of the relatives of the squad, commented that the final was like being at the Camp Nou. He was enjoying the electrifying atmosphere in the Italian stadium.