Sunday night saw Barcelona smash another five goals past Real. It was Sociedad this time round, but the performance and the stats where almost identical to the Blaugrana’s decimation of their Castillian rivals. Five goals, a possession percentage in the seventies, complete domination and a goal scoring move involving more passes than Stoke manage in one game. It was another complete performance, with over 900 passes in one game, only when compared to the Spanish national sides World Cup average of 527 passes a game does that figure truly become remarkable.
The Premier League enthusiasts will cry foul, stating the inadequacy of the rest of La Liga, that Real Sociedad are relegation fodder. But Sociedad are developing into a decent mid-table side, above the more established Sevilla, Deportivo La Coruna and level on points with the formidable Athletic Bilbao. It’s not as if this result is a one off either, regardless of the destruction of Madrid in the Clasico Barcelona’s record against their last six opponents reads 26-0. They are now unbeaten since Hercules’ shock win in the Camp Nou and sit two points clear at the top of La Liga. At this moment in time, Barcelona are quite simply unplayable. Real Madrid are probably the second best team in Europe at the moment and they were swatted aside like a fly. Arsenal, despite their claims they want to face Barca in the Champions League knock out stages, either have a very short memory or they’re more interested in going out early to focus on their domestic challenge.
Players-wise, they don’t have a massive sprawling squad with cover in most positions as seen at Real Madrid or Manchester United. Fortunately they have a pretty decent first eleven. As the game against Real finished last week, Barca ended it with eight academy products on the pitch. Real Madrid had one. The Ballon d’Or nominations, although controversial, has effectively come to represent a communal award to Barcelona. If Xavi or Iniesta win it, they’re only going to pass it to Messi anyway – it’s what comes naturally to them.
The nominations are the ultimate compliment to the club’s La Masia academy. Iniesta and Messi have grown up together, sleeping in the same 17th century farmhouse alongside Gerard Pique, Mikel Arteta, Pepe Reina, Cesc Fabregas and countless others. Xavi Hernandez did the same a few years beforehand, as did their manager, Pep Guardiola. It reinforces the ex-president Joan Laporta’s statement that “we make Ballon d’Or winners, others have to buy them.”
Luckily for Barcelona there’s only one club in the world who could buy Lionel Messi and even then Manchester City might struggle to meet the young Argentine’s transfer value. Messi has already hit 27 goals this season and it’s not even Christmas. He has 70 goals in 71 games for Barca and is leading the race for the Pichichi with Cristiano Ronaldo on 17 goals. The most worrying statistic for world football is that he is 23 years old; he hasn’t even reached his prime yet. There are no worries regarding his lifestyle, like all Barca players he has had a mindset of humility instilled into him from an early age. So the thought of him at his peak is enough to bring out Europe in a cold shake.
Unlike the great Dutch side of the seventies, from which Barcelona has carved their footballing ideology they have married beautiful, technically proficient football with success. Guardiola has won everything he could possibly win in European football in two seasons in charge of the Blaugrana. In his maiden season he led the team to the first ever Spanish treble, a feat he trumped in his second season as he went on to win the Spanish Super Cup, the European Super Cup and the World Club Championship. Football’s first ever sextuple.
Commercially they have overtaken both Manchester United and Bayern Munich this week by announcing the largest shirt sponsorship in Football. Their five year deal with the Qatar Foundation is worth £25 million a year and helps amend the only black spot upon Barcelona’s legacy. After Laporta’s extravagant reign as president Barcelona have incurred a debt of around £369.5 million. The debt has been the catalyst for the commercialisation of the club and has seen criticism from club legend Johan Cruyff who made clear his fury at the decision to renege on the tradition of having no sponsor; “by selling the shirt it shows me that we are not being creative, and that we have become vulgar.” Unfortunately Barcelona is a business as much as it is a football club and money talks. It was always going to be a matter of time before they went down the road of lucrative shirt sponsorship. They simply couldn’t afford not to anymore.
In this very moment Barcelona represent the pinnacle of world football. They aren’t invincible as Internazionale proved last year, but when on song they aren’t far off. In 50 years many people will look back at this moment of Spanish domination, both internationally and domestically. Only then will the true prominence of Barcelona become recognized as well as the ideologies that they represent. Mes Que En Club is their motto and they are going the right way of transcending just being a football club. Soon they will be a legacy.