Barça players of the decade

1) Ronaldinho
The first choice is easy and maybe it will be slightly surprising to some, but Ronaldinho set the tone and was the undoubted figure head of the team that won the Champions League under Frank Rijkaard. He started things that we see the fruits of today, a new culture of sexy football taken to the next level that culminated in a standing ovation at the Bernabéu. His goofy look and ‘do you want a drink?’ style hand gesture became legendary. I lived in Cyprus in 2005-6 when he single handily converted the world into Barcelona followers.

2) Xavi
Just played his 500th game in a Barça shirt in an age where loyalty is rare. Perhaps no-one else has honed their game more this decade and perhaps no other player on the planet has had such an impact implementing their style. Xavi ‘the brain’ is the lynchpin of this Barcelona side and has stamped his authority in a similar vein on the Spanish national team. Some would call Messi the jewel of La Masia, but Xavi is the epitome of what La Masia produces: intelligent, ball-passing and match winning midfielders. Xavi makes everyone else look better because he does the simple things well, but more because he makes the most finely threaded through ball look easy.

3) Messi
Best player in the world and, despite never doing it at the Britannia Stadium, has won everything in the game apart from the World Cup. He’s only 23 and does things never seen before on the pitch. Off the pitch he’s humble and quiet and never makes the headlines for the wrong reasons. For me, his most memorable moment wasn’t his goal against Getafe where he beat the whole team a la Maradona, nor his hat-trick against the arch enemy Real Madrid, but his goal in the Champions League final against Manchester United that made it 2-0. Big players perform in big games and despite the first eight minutes of that game being insufferable and the tensest minutes of my life, Messi, if there were any doubters, didn’t go missing and exploited the gap in Manchester United’s defence and get on the end of Xavi’s cross and seal the game. Many forget he’s more than a one-trick pony, instead he’s often unselfish and puts the team before his own success. He made the key pass with a cool head when others may have panicked that saw Iniesta get the winner in the Champions League semi-final victory against Chelsea in the ninety-third minute.

4) Eto’o
Crazy. Badly-behaved. Loved. A total enigma. Fans adore him and managers put up with him. Eto’o made his name at Barcelona and gave everything for the club. Two goals in two Champions League finals that literally salvaged the club’s chances of success: his first was the equaliser against a ten-man Arsenal, put through on the left and blasting the ball in at the near post after relentless second-half pressure and then against Manchester United, a goal against the run of play, after those eight minutes from Hell. Vidic slipped and this time from the right Eto’o took advantage and made no mistake in beating Van Der Saar. Guardiola’s boys never looked back and bossed the game from then on.

5) Iniesta
The goal against Chelsea to take Barcelona to the Champions League final has already been mentioned and the winning goal for Spain in the World Cup final against Holland will go down in history. Iniesta’s a darling of the Spanish nation, probably only second to Iker Casillas in terms of popularity but he couldn’t be more different. He shies away from the public limelight and comes from a village near Albacete of just 2,000 inhabitants. He graduated from La Masia just as the likes of Xavi, Messi, Piqué, Pedro and Fàbregas have and on the pitch he’s made his name that will live on long after he’s retired, but it’s off the pitch, for me, that makes the man. After scoring the winning goal in the World Cup final, Iniesta lifted up his shirt to reveal a vest that bore the words “Dani Jarque, siempre con nosotros” (Dani Jarque, always with us). Dani Jarque was an Espanyol player that died while on a pre-season tour in Florence at the age of 26 and Iniesta and Dani Jarque were great friends, when asked about his homage to Jarque after the final Iniesta said “I haven’t been able to do anything for him all season and he deserves it”. Espanyol invited Iniesta before the Barcelona city-derby to take part in a ceremony in memory of Dani Jarque, showing that city rivalry can be overcome by friendship.

6) Belletti
World Cup winner before he came to Barcelona and won League titles, Super Cups domestically and in Europe. Juliano Belletti spent three years at Barcelona and with Geovani Van Bronkhurst was key to Rijkaard’s style of play that saw the full-backs used as de-facto wingers to create space and squeeze the opposition in the final third of the pitch. However, Belletti is on this list, and Geo Van Bronkhurst not, because he made history. We remember people who made history, we remember Neil Armstrong for walking on a bit of rock in the sky, Rosa Parks for sitting on a bus and Martin Luther King for telling us about his nap, but Belletti scored Barcelona’s winning goal on the Champions League final ten minutes before the final whistle to capture Barcelona’s second European Cup. It was the culmination of a walk with destiny which without the Barcelona legend currently in the making would be less legend more hype. Teams are remembered, ultimately, for what they won and Belletti has ensured that it wasn’t a false start. He donated the boots he wore that night in Paris to the Barcelona club museum.

7) Pedro
Another addition on historical grounds. I have to say I never really rated Pedro in his first full-season at the club. He was another product from La Masia and Guardiola threw him in and the start of the season and used him somewhat sparingly at first, but as the season went on he was used more and more and he scored goals, key goals. Pedro became the only player in history to score in all competitions when Josep Guardiola’s Barcelona took the lot and won everything: la Liga, the King’s Cup, Spanish Super Cup, the Champions League, the European Super Cup and the World Club Cup. By the end of the season I couldn’t imagine a team without him in it.

8) Puyol
Carles Puyol is the face of the club. Unfortunate because his hair-do leaves a lot to be desired and he’s very ugly, but he’s the stalwart of the team and more importantly, he’s club capità. He wears the armband with pride and leads from the front. He’s invincible. He plays when he breaks every bone in his body and quite literally would die on his feet. For all his commitment on the pitch though, there was always a question mark against him as to whether he was in the class of Maldini, Baresi and the like, and if that matter has been resolved then it’s in the last two seasons that any final question has been put to bed. Puyol’s a warrior and an utmost professional (that’s a euphemism for boring post-match speaker), but in recent years he’s matured. Pictures of him sliding in and making last ditch challenges were commonplace, fifty-fifty headers where he won the ball and come off worse could fill countless youtube videos, but there was a little of the headless chicken about him. What he’s added to his game is a positional discipline and awareness. He always sacrificed himself for the team, but in wanting to lead by example sometimes he cost the team. Now, however, Puyol is more considered, he’s more Arsenal’s Tony Adams than Atleti’s Parea, he wins the ball and sacrifices himself when it’s right to do so. He doesn’t miss and wins the ball with the same ferocity as before, but now waits and waits, almost stalking opponents. He was nominated, alongside Cafu, Cannavaro and Maldini, in The Sun’s team of the decade which also included Zidane, Figo, Buffon and Thierry Henry.

9) Valdés
I recall a conversation I was a part of just a few days ago with person B, from Catalonia, who went to visit person A’s off-spring, in Madrid:

• Person A: Do you like Casillas?
• Person B: I prefer Valdés
• Person A: Hmm, do you want a glass with Casillas and the “selección” on it?
• Person B: I’d prefer a glass with Valdés and the “selección” on it.
• Person A: It has Barça players on it.
• Person B: It could have Valdés and other Barça players on it, too.

For Spaniards in general Casillas is king; the best thing since sliced bread. At least for Catalans the clamour made over Casillas leaves us a bit miffed. Yes, he’s good, sure, but Valdés is something else for us. Mourinho said that Valdés is the perfect goalkeeper for F.C. Barcelona and to us it simply means he should be playing for the national side too. It shows how far he’s come from a player that nearly quit shortly after coming into the first team because of the pressure he felt playing for the club. He was prone to errors and looked a bit goofy and after a string of dodgy Dutch and German keepers, and an even younger Pepe Reina, Valdés looked like next in line for a short spell in the first team. Valdés, though, despite the errors, was persevered with and it’s paid off. I feel that when talking about Valdés he’s dismissed by other fans and yet when I see him keep Barça in the game and prove a strong last line of defence, I feel he’s under-rated to the detriment of the league.

10) Deco
It’s a tough one between Van Bommel and Deco and to be honest either could be in this list. Around at the time of Ronaldinho and crystallised into perfection by the Champions League win, Deco was Xavi and Messi pre-Xavi and pre-Messi. He scored goals, made wonderful passes and dived. To put it simply, he gave Xavi time to settle in and was creative enough to let Messi have enough air to breathe and find his feet.

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Raül Pope Fargüell for Forza Futbol