The former deputy director of Mundo Deportivo Francesc Aguilar was one of the journalists with the best contacts at UEFA and FIFA. For years he was part of the Ballon d’Or jury. Now presents the book Els tresors del Barça.
You, who have seen a lot of football, catalog the decade of 2008 and 2018 as Barcelona’s best years. Because?
I have been professionally linked to Barcelona since 1975. When the 4-2-4 was created I was a founding partner. I debuted in a classic. And in 2018 I hung up my boots. But those last ten years I had had a great time.
What was the best match?
The highlight was the 2011 Champions League final at Wembley. All the fans and Manchester United players applauded Barça. I have seen great matches in Cruyff’s time, especially at Camp Nou, but the expression of football that I like is that match. Ferguson confessed to me that he had later proved Rooney right that it was impossible to take the ball away from the Blaugrana.
“The final in Bern dynamited the club”. Why was he so critical?
Bern was the culmination of what was perhaps the first dream team, the continuation of Barça from the Five Cups. In that final you can talk about bad luck. The second half, when Suárez came together in the center of the field with Kubala, was spectacular. After the final the team disbanded. Luis Suárez Miramontes would have marked an era as he did at Inter.
It took 35 years to return to the European Cup final.
In Seville I had a feeling it wasn’t going to go well. I didn’t go there.
In 1992, the wait ended.
While Cruyff devoted himself to the sporting issue and Núñez focused on the economic, it went well. When one and the other wanted to step on each other, everything collapsed. Johan believed that the managers had no idea about football. That’s how this pulse started. By the way, the book explains that Cruyff was able to arrive a few months earlier. If Alexanco did not score the goal against Real in the Copa final in March 1988, Johan was already waiting at Geneva airport. Casaus convinced Núñez that he would be an agglutinator.
Barça, Catalan and Catalanist.
But its history cannot be understood without Gamper, Paulino Alcántara, Kubala, Cruyff and Messi. They are five foreigners but people didn’t consider them that way, and neither did they. They settled in and integrated.
Gamper is from a movie.
He looked like a dreamer but he had the current Barça in mind. Other sports such as fencing were already important to him. He was clear that he wanted a football club, multi-sport, integrative, that defended the values ??of Catalanism. He was a visionary.
Is it unfair with Alcántara?
The big shame for him is that his records are before the League, but he has a lot of them. He’s a real genius in disguise.
What does Kubala represent?
People are not aware of what his arrival entailed. He brought the effect to Spanish football. In the matches, the rivals were left thinking how he did it. He was an extraordinary athlete and the legends told about him are true. Some of his great matches were when he was most touched. It was all heart, the Hungarian consulate in Catalonia.
Does the Di Stéfano case change history?
There was never any jealousy, as they say. They hurt Barça and football. One of the games they played together was against Bologna. Coach Giuseppe Viani said: “I had never witnessed a show like that of Kubala and Di Stéfano”. They scored a goal leaving their area by making walls.
It’s been 50 years since Cruyff’s 0-5.
Before going to the Bernabéu, Michels and Cruyff met to decide that Johan would play as a false 9. It was one of the successes of that match. Either he caught Madrid on the counterattack at speed or he forced Madrid’s central players out, who were the masters inside the area. The winners were Asensi, Juan Carlos or Sotil, who took advantage of the spaces he left in the middle.
Did he imagine that Messi, a player created at the Masia, would win eight Ballon d’Or?
I don’t know if so many but yes. I helped a little at first because Leo wasn’t that well known yet. The son of Roberto Martínez, the former player of Espanyol and Madrid, put my head like a drum until I went to see him. What makes me believe that he is gifted is that Deco and Ronaldinho told Rijkaard: “Mister, put him on, he is very good”.
Barça is once again a pioneer with the women’s team.
It’s the chapters I’m most proud of. To create the women’s team Imma Cabecerán, who was the wife of former player Pau García Castany, recreated Gamper’s steps for the foundation and published an advertisement in Revista Barcelonista asking women to like to play that they sign up. Despite President Montal’s insistence, they let them play, but they had neither clothes nor balls to train with.
And now the last three Golden Balls are from Barça…
Parents must be reminded that not all their daughters will be Alexia Putellas and Aitana Bonmatí.
Are the World Cups in Qatar and Saudi Arabia doing well for football?
I could not imagine the way in which they were awarded, but Havelange was already obsessed with turning football into a world sport. It is more scandalous that they gave one to Videla in 1978.
Is Barça’s greatest asset owned by members?
I’ve been wondering that for years. It is very beautiful and may last a lifetime. But it will be very difficult to compete with State and multi-millionaire clubs.
