FC Barcelona, the Catalonian club in Spain, is widely followed and its present generation of footballers revered for their style of football instilled and honed by Dutch footballing legend Johan Cruyff. The club’s heyday under former coach Josep “Pep” Guardiola is understood to be over following his departure and the inevitable aging of some key players such as Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta. Others such as goalkeeper Victor Valdes and defender Carles Puyol have left the club. When Luis Enrique took over as manager at Barcelona from Gerardo Martino in May 2014, the club was said to be facing a mini-crisis. It had failed to win any major honour in 2013-14 — for the first time in six years. This was a far cry from the period of 2008-12 when it won 14 of the possible 19 trophies. When in January, midway through the season, the club trailed its bitter rival Real Madrid in the Spanish La Liga standings, there were questions galore for Enrique to answer. Four months on, the coach stands vindicated for his unrelenting optimism. Barcelona was crowned the league champion last weekend after winning 18 of its last 20 games. It is now on the >cusp of a possible triple win as it is in the finals of the Champions League and the Copa del Rey. The performance of arguably the world’s most devastating front trio, of Neymar, Luis Suarez and lynchpin Lionel Messi, is evidence that Enrique’s approach of man-management rather than total reliance on tactical know-how has worked. The three have had a combined tally of 79 goals and 28 assists in La Liga this season.
While the win will soothe the nerves of Barcelona and its fans, the symbolism outside Spain is not to be lost. Till 2012 the apex of world football was in Spain, built on a style that made absolute control of the ball paramount. In the seasons since then, that emphasis shifted when clubs, especially in Germany, took the style to a new level by adding ruthless efficiency and rapid transition from defence to offence. The high point of this was the combined 7-0 thrashing of Barcelona by Bayern Munich in the 2012-13 Champions League semi-final legs, and the 2014 World Cup win for Germany. Barcelona this season has added these elements to its game. Barcelona no longer just attacks; it counter-attacks too, as was seen in its 5-3 defeat of Bayern Munich in the Champions League semi-finals. The club’s front line, representing the best of the waltz and tango that South American football is known for, has been instrumental in this. Whether this would kick-start another era of dominance by Barcelona and whether with that a shift of the apex back to Spain would happen is too early to say. But victory in Berlin over Juventus in the Champions League final could sow the seeds for such a turn.