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FINAL DE LA CHAMPIONSIndeed, it would stretch the hair before the television (as he admitted) had not followed the advice of Zubizarreta and Luis Enrique in summer. And it would have been without hair because I could not have lifted the Champions League, the fourth and the fifth of his club.
So extraordinary was the culmination of Xavi his extraordinary career at the club, settlement yesterday after 25 seasons, 17 of them in the first team. And he did it with greatness, playing in the field and wearing the captain’s armband. Iniesta put it when 76 minutes was replaced, another symbolic change, from captain to captain, keeper of the essences holder of the best DNA Barca. He leaves Xavi but remains Iniesta . All quiet.
Pirlo
It goes Xavi but the parting was unbeatable. In the countryside outside the shirt to Pirlo , another mythical. After that rise like he never tasted the Royal Box, where he waited the big ‘romaine’. He waited patiently for their turn and finally arrived.
There he hoped Platini, another magician of the ball. So she hugged him affectionately and even necked. “Here, it’s yours,” he had to say. He took the trophy, with Xavi with the bracelet and the game ball under his shirt, in memory of his wife, Nuria , pregnant, and handed it over. He was so eager to show that the team stayed behind and looked only trophy, but not to Xavi .
Therefore, to reach the Catalans curve followers, he was raised on the shoulders, with the cup in his hands, this time, for them to see all.And they cheered and chanted his name. “Xavi, Xavi, Xavi ….”.
ONE LEGACY
It leaves Xavi , but leaves a legacy for the difficult history to match.Four European Cups, eight league titles, three Cups, six Super Cups Spain, two European Super Cups and two World Club 25 titles in total (plus a World Cup and two European Championships with the national team), plus 151 games in the Champions League.
So gargantuan and simple, as it has been the path of Xavi, a unique player I experienced the best stories ever told. “Reality has it exceeded my dreams”, he said in his final speech to all his family and friends at the Auditorium 1899. And it has been. Xavi , a symbol of FC Barcelona, goes to Qatar. It leaves, and requires less for his return.
el Periodico / Translation
13:06:15
DAVID TORRAS / BERLIN
Eternal glory
GEORGE COTRINA
Messi, with the Champions League trophy, surrounded by photographers and cameras.
Gloria the club in Berlin , gloria to Xavi , the eternal captain, who turned the last mission and raised the Champions , the fifth in a history that a team has rewritten legend in just 10 years.
A decade worth a century and he has made him the King of Europe and the world.
Gloria to a club that has become large and Saturday in an epic scenario, regained the lost throne (1-3) , after leaving behind all the champions (England, France, Germany and Italy) and closed the second triplet and opened the way of the six titles.
Accompanied by the voices of over 17,000 Catalans who lived another coaster of emotions to embrace their own, in the symbolic final image of a party that did not end in the field but in the heart Tier.
The goal and the mad race for Neymar – with the whole team behind him while Juventus wept silently – was the best end of another beautiful story.
There are already many beautiful stories to tell of a club that -not so long ago -only had to remember Wembley. Five Champions , five European Cups, as Bayern and Liverpool.
Who could imagine in the long times of disappointments. The ‘Old Lady’, so glamorous, so hard to conquer, elegant in the field and in defeat, also succumbed, but he fought like Italian it is, and never knelt despite the coup begin to lose four minutes.
It seemed so easy, and it was not. He suffered much, and when it was worse the game, when the juventina tier loudest and Barca walked in silence, fear he had not felt all day, the club got up and grabbed the cup by two ears. Messi ran and ran, and Suárez clinched it.
And Neymar drew the last bullet of a story is not over.
THE HAPPINESS OF LUIS ENRIQUE
It sounded ‘Viva la vida’ , again, symbol of the best years of the life of Barcelona. Barca anthem rang, and Berlin heard thousands of voices singing, as players walked to the glass, hand in hand, smiling, feeling in glory.
And there was Luis Enrique, happier than ever, letting go of all the feelings I kept inside and took months holding, listening chanting his name, in what was a clear message.
They do not want to leave, even though yesterday he kept in the air the future. His young daughter, Xana , waving a flag. and he finished planting in the midfield, a metaphor for the conquest of Berlin.
A HOLIDAY
Glory to Messi – one of the great authors of this colossal work. And at his side, Xavi, Iniesta, Pique, Busquets, Alves and Pedro, the heroes of the four Champions club, symbols of a style that goes far beyond accumulating titles.
Berlin was a party from beginning to end, since thousands of Catalans scattered in the streets, and took the Brandenburg Gate and crossed the wall, still singing, still smiling, without fear of losing, far from the old fatalism FC Barcelona because the club of the century is a club again.
Europe has won four times in nine years, always with the sweet smell of the ball.
Berlin lived a bright day, with nothing to disturb as would have happened in a final against Madrid , a classic poisoned anyone would have lived in peace, either before, during or after.
Sitting front of the TV, the Real Madrid came close to having his great hero, Morata, the same that eliminated them. And he earned much more than forgiveness with the goal. But it was not there and the tenth has been buried a year later under the weight of the triplet.
Artur Mas SMILE
On stage, though, the state representation was far from that of a year ago in Lisbon, as if to play a Spanish team. It was the day of the Armed Forces and both Philip VI as Mariano Rajoy stayed home.
Artur Mas smiled again and Cup. No more song than the Champions League , the supporters repeated the ritual of raising thousands of shouting independence estelades 17.14 minutes.
No one could write a better ending to Xavi football, and so restore the passion all these years. And I held hands as Iniesta crowned as the best in the final. Two friends. Two symbols of this team. Mission accomplished.
el Perioódico /Translation
2015-06-07
