Nobody wanted Barça’s ’10’ that Ansu inherited from Messi

So much so that no one wants to wear that shirt. Nobody is nobody. Now it has been left empty, hanging in the locker room of the sports city, cornered in the Botiga because it has no owner, as if it had belonged to some outlaw left behind by witchcraft. The last one, a young teenager who had the courage to take charge of the club to inherit the weight of Messianic history on his back, was of no use to him.

Two years with the ’10’, a torture of injuries and on his way to Brighton without even saying goodbye to his people. Neither from the squad – a cold phone call with Xavi certified his goodbye – nor from the people. From Seville, where he was with his family in Herrera, the town where he started it all, in the south of England. Without any stopover in Barcelona.

A scary number

Something similar happened to Messi, the one who honored her for more than an unforgettable decade. He came from Ibiza to sign his renewal with Barça and shortly after he was on a private plane on his way to Paris where he lived, as Neymar has just confessed, “hell”, the victim of an escrache at the door of his house .

It seems unreal, but no player from Xavi’s squad feels strong, with footballing authority and leadership to put on that number that once belonged to Ronaldinhothe smile that activated the virtuous circle, or Riquelme, from whom they took it precisely to give it to the Brazilian who went out too soon. Although Barça was reborn at the hands of Messi.

The ’10’ that belonged to Rivaldo and even Guardiola when he appeared in the ‘Dream Team’ (1991-92), just after his great friend Michael Laudrup wore it. The same one who used “a cartoon striker”, as Valdano described Romário, that scorer who certified the end of the ‘Dream Team’ because it meant a full stop in the work that Cruyff built from the bench.

Maradona, Suárez, Kubala…

The ’10’ of Maradona (the authentic one) and of the ‘Maradona de los Cárpatos’ (the Romanian Hagi) when the numbers had no name or personal whims. The ’10’ that was also after Gary Lineker. Or Maradona. Or Luis Suarez. Even from Kubala. And Evaristo de Macedo. Or by Paulino Alcántara, the ‘Romperredes’. Or Ángel Arocha, both at the beginning of the last century.

The history of Barça can be explained through the owners, occasional or permanent, of that shirt. The current situation of a club, immersed in economic misery, victim of waste, can now also be explained. When he had money, and he had a lot, he squandered it.

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Now, on the other hand, he lives from day to day, clinging to the agendas of famous agents, such as Jorge Mendes, recruiting players on loan (João Félix and João Cancelo) who are not his. Nor can they be. They come rented. No more no less. João Félix has chosen, for example, number 14, with a Cruyffista flavor, but outside the Camp Nou where Johan always wore the number 9. At Barça that number belongs to Lewandowski. And 11 is in Raphinha’s body.

But the immense void it leaves That 10 orphan provokes an image for history. In a few years, when what has happened in these times of ‘laportismo’ is reviewed, chapter two, there are still historians of culé thought who will dedicate their time and talent to investigate such tremendous dysfunction. Xavi’s ‘6’ is from Gavi. And Iniesta’s ‘8’ belongs to Pedri. But the ’10’ no longer belongs to anyone.