Barça Dreams (2015) - full transcript

When I came here my dream
was to play in the first squad

and I never imagined

I would experience everything
that followed,

but I'm happy about
all that's happened to me.

I had to live in Barcelona

I ended up going through it all

because God wanted it

and I'm grateful.

Managing to stay for a long time
in a club like this

is extremely difficult.

I had the enthusiasm,
conviction and confidence



that I wanted to succeed at Barça,

whatever the cost.

Seeing my name
as one of the world's best players

or being nominated
Footballer of the Year

was unthinkable when I began
at 16, 17 or 18.

We've overcome every barrier
and dream one could have.

WE ARE BARÇA

Messi.

Iniesta.

And Xavi.

Three unique players
in the history of football.

Born with a ball at their feet,

they grew up dreaming of glory.

and achieved much more
than they could ever have imagined.



They coincided in a legendary team,

at a time when football became
the greatest sport show on the planet.

Barça has thousands of members,
millions of fans

and a playing group
trained to follow a game plan

that has revolutionized
the world of football in recent years.

Barcelona.

A friendly, vibrant,
attractive and modern city

that has been open to the world
for centuries.

It is renowned for the legacy
of the architect Antoni Gaudí

and many other
20th century artists and creators.

But among these now,
are also the football geniuses

who have played
for Futbol Club Barcelona,

for they have also contributed
to making the city more famous.

Whenever a match is played
at the stadium,

the club's exciting history resounds.

Today, it is one
of the world's most famous clubs.

But its true history
remains unknown to many people.

It was founded in 1899.

And interestingly enough,
not by a Catalan,

but by a 22 year old Swiss man

named Joan Gamper.

A lover of all sports, not just football,

he left the ordered, peaceful landscape
of his native Switzerland

for a bustling, emerging Barcelona

in search of a better future.

He was a true sportsman.

He's a fan of all sports
and plays them all.

He met other people

in places that were very important then,

the few gyms that existed in Barcelona.

People who were crazy about
sport used to meet there.

They were looked upon
as somewhat eccentric.

When Gamper announced
he wanted to set up Barça,

twelve people responded to his call,

the club's founders.

Of these twelve,

half of them were foreigners
and the other half were Catalans.

The first president was Swiss,
Walter Wild.

Joan Gamper could not take the post
because of his age.

He was under 23.

But he was always
the life and soul of the club.

He initially wanted to be
the team's captain and play,
[Joan Gamper's granddaughter]

and later join the board,
but not to be president.
[Joan Gamper's granddaughter]

He wanted to participate from a distance.

And if the club had problems,

he took over
and got it back on track again.

He'd collect signatures or money

to keep the club afloat.

These sports lovers
transformed a small group of friends

into a great football club.

In the 10s and 20s,

a competitive Barça was already attracting
crowds to its stadium in Industria street.

And later,
to the neighborhood of Les Corts.

Football was becoming fashionable,

but there were not enough seats,

so many fans would sit
on top of the walls around the stadium,

thereby exposing a series of backsides,
or "culs", in the process.

So the city's inhabitants
dubbed them "culés",

a term still used today.

Football was becoming a spectacle,

and the players went
from being amateurs to professionals.

If previously they had payed
for membership to play,

they now demanded payment.

It was a painful change
for Gamper's spirit for amateur sport.

He still believed in amateur sport.

However he had founded a club
that was growing bigger

and to move in higher places,

this step became inevitable,

as it was the direction football
was heading to.

Gamper was an idealist
who would have liked to live

in classical Greece,

and participate in the ancient Games,

testing his physical
and mental endurance.

He understood sports
as a way to educate oneself

in the values of friendship,
respect, and competitiveness.

Values that are difficult to maintain
in any modern day competition.

Nonetheless, Barça has driven
to maintain these ideals of its founder,

especially in recent years.

Those who see football as a religion

know that Barça is about
more than playing football.

It teaches you a great deal
about the sport,

but especially at a human level,

to think about your teammates

and the group before yourself.

Barça promotes these values,
respect, caring,

humility, work, effort, sacrifice.

I arrived when I was 13

and was brought up here

with the values of Barça and La Masia.

And more than just playing football,

they also educate you really well.

La Masia contributed
a lot to my personality.

The things I've been able
to grow up with,

in terms of respect, education,

humility, respecting your teammates,

were all about learning and
having to improve each year.

The noble values of competition
have always existed,

but they have not always been promoted.

They have often been buried by passion,

ambition, combativeness,
money, or politics.

Football is, by far,
the most popular sport on the planet,

but it's difficult to imagine it free
from all these conflicts and interests.

Gamper today would not believe the amounts
of money that move the football world,

over 20 billion Euros,

or signing major stars
for up to 100 million.

As the true lover of sport that he was,

he was troubled by the big business
that was already moving football then.

Actually, there are jokes about the time

he was negotiating contracts
with players

and he wanted to give them
some "love-for-the-club" vitamins,

so that they'd ask for less money
after taking them.

Gamper was a committed man,
a dreamer.

His love for the club helped him
to overcome many obstacles,

such as a lack of funds,
which he covered with his own money.

Or reprisals against
Catalan demonstrations in the 1920s.

Even then Barça was becoming
a symbol of Catalan identity,

that ran counter
to the Spanish dictatorship of the time,

and this brought with it a few problems.

They once closed the ground.

An English Navy squadron had come
[Former FCB member nº1]

with an English football team
[Former FCB member nº1]

and played against Barça.

The English anthem was played,
with everybody standing,

and there was applause at the end,

but nobody stood up
for the Spanish anthem,

so they close the ground for six months.

It is surprising that 90 years later,

under full democracy,

many Catalans, once again,
jeered the Spanish anthem,

as they did at this Kings' Cup Final
a few years ago.

The authorities installed 100.000 watt
speakers to drown out the jeers,

but it didn't work.

Many Catalans continue
to demand their right as a nation,

with their own culture,
and they do not feel truly comfortable

with Spanish political power.

Joan Gamper had to play the price
for the anger directed

against the anthem in 1925.

The authorities punished him

by banishing him from the club
and the country.

And although
he was allowed to return later,

he could not hold any posts in the club.

This sank him into a depression,

that was aggravated
by the devastating effects

of the Wall Street Crash.

Isolated from the club
and a destroyed man,

Gamper committed suicide
at 52 years of age.

It really shocked a lot of people.

If Gamper had thought that
nobody would remember him,
[JOAN GAMPER FUNERAL, 31 July 1930]

it wasn't true since his funeral
proved the opposite,

with an incredible
number of people on the streets.

The morals of the day
kept his suicide quiet.

Gamper, however, had left behind
a very dynamic football club.

The Crash of '29 destroyed many clubs,

but not Barça, as it had grown
and become firmly established.

The club had until then
experienced a golden age,

producing several legendary players,

like Samitier,
or the extraordinary Paulino Alcántara,

the first great goal scorer
in Spanish football,

with a total of 357 goals.

He was dubbed "The Netbreaker".

In terms of sport,

the 1920s is known
as Barça's first golden age,

because it actually won nearly
everything from 1919 to 1929.

The number of trophies is
truly impressive.

It was also famous for a few players,

Zamora debuted at the same time
as the big player Samitier,

but others came later, Sagi, Platko,

very important names
in the Club's history.

Barça's fame extended far and wide,

even to the Americas.

The famous Argentine singer,
Carlos Gardel,

dedicated this tango
to the Barça stars of the day.

♪ You are so bad, you are always offside ♪

♪ You never control a ball,
You think you are a star ♪

♪ And you can't even shoot a free kick ♪

♪ You want to be a forward
And be like Piera ♪

♪ Emulate Sastre
And score from the center of the pitch ♪

♪ You want to score past colossal Zamora ♪

♪ And be like Sami, the football wizard ♪

But the roaring 20s
also had bitter counterpoints.

The authorities had closed
the Barça ground for six months

because the Spanish anthem was jeered.

And Gamper was banished
from the country.

After Gamper's death,

things would become much worse
in the thirties,

as growing political exultation in Spain
would lead to its tragic Civil War.

Barça was a club that
reflected Catalan society,

so logically it was affected
by the beginning of the Civil War.

Its institutions collapsed,

it membership decreased

and it underwent a financial crisis.

But above all, this great team,

which had practically won everything
between 1919 and 1929,

stopped winning.

Given that Barça defended
the Catalan majority view

in favor of democracy,
the Catalan identity and the Republic,

it became the target of fascist anger.

The club house was bombed,

and its president, Josep Suñol,
was killed by Franco's forces.

The bombing of Barcelona
caused more than a thousand deaths

in just three days, in March 1938.

The bombs destroyed Barça's offices,

shattering many of the trophies
it had won until then.

In recent times, the remains were smelted

to create a sculpture
recalling this tragedy.

The Civil War claimed many lives
and demoralized the Catalans,

the majority of whom had opted
for the Republic, the losing side.

After the war, the fascist dictatorship
of General Franco,

who would remain in power

as a historical anachronism for 40 years,
took its toll.

Barça was in a very delicate position,

because it had earlier clearly expressed

its support of democratic ideals

and the Catalan identity.

Catalan had been the official
language of the club since 1921

and then suddenly in 1939
it finds itself under a dictatorship...

that wants to control not just Barça,

but all sporting clubs in Spain,

which is why the boards
were directly named

by the
Falangist National Sports Delegation.

The most obvious thing for Barça

was that it was somehow forced to show

that this Barça was nothing like
the previous one,

so it had to renounce all the values

implicit in the club
prior to the Civil War.

While the world was in flames
during the Second World War,

Spain was a devastated country.

All the clubs attempted to recover.

Young people saw football
as a way to escape,

even if they had to pay
for their boots, shirts and ball.

A ball called "Nitran".

We had to paint them white to play at night

because there weren't any white balls.

All of them were the colour of leather.

They weighed 100 grams

and if they were kicked around
over a wet pitch

by the end of the match

they weighed about a kilo
or a kilo and a half.

We didn't have the gloves
that they have now.

Sometimes I think,
how has he lost the ball

when it's impossible with their gloves?

We had woollen gloves
crocheted by my mother

and we only wore them when it rained.

After the war, in 1942,

Barça had only 3,500 members,

and was about to be relegated
to the Second Division.

The authorities had changed its crest
to remove the four bars of the Catalan flag

and replaced it with the two bars
of the Spanish flag.

And its name was now in Spanish,
"Club de Fútbol Barcelona".

The club experienced
some very hard times,

but it gradually recovered
and produced new legends,

like the goalkeeper Antoni Ramallets.

Antonio was everybody's idol.

He was known as "the winged cat".

It's funny because he used
to take his goalie's kit home

to be washed and ironed by his mother,

because we bought them ourselves.

Not like now when they give
them away after the match.

If I'd done that, I wouldn't
have had any on game day.

No Barça player of the last century
can be compared to Ladislao Kubala--

a Hungarian with Slovak parents
who'd fled the communist regime,

and dreamed of settling in Spain.

He had spent his childhood playing
football in the streets of Budapest,

was blessed with great talent,

and had the build
that would bring him success.

He joined Barça in 1950,
initiating a new golden age.

Kubala is one of the great Barça legends,

a very good player

and was also surrounded

by some very major
non-sporting matters at the time,

given that he was essentially a refugee

fleeing from the Eastern Bloc,

which was all about Cold War dynamics...

He came to Barça and really
created a football revolution.

He controlled the ball really well,
with both feet with amazing ease.

Sometimes he would sit
on the ground like in the circus

and kick the ball upwards...
And why?

Because Kubala could control the ball,

even in his sleep.

He showed people things
they hadn't seen before.

People went to matches
just to see Kubala play.

This was the five-cup Barça.

Everyone wanted to play in Barça then.

Kubala in the 1950s was one of
the people who gave the club

a football and social dimension
that was above the norm.

All the most popular figures of the day

wanted to be connected
to Kubala in some way.

Barça's culture has always
been about play,

but the person who showed this
on the field was a foreigner.

It's interesting
that it happened with Kubala,

with Cruyff,

with Ronaldinho,

with Messi.

This is another thing that doesn't
happen much in many clubs.

Barça can create a team,

but it's a foreigner who usually
makes the difference,

soaking up a lot from Barça's
game system and culture

and giving it a dimension

that would be difficult
for a player from here.

And it's very much in line
with Gamper's spirit.

Kubala replaces Gamper

at the top of the list
of history-making names.

And he does so as a hugely popular idol
who transcends borders.

With him, Barça becomes
the best football team of the day,

with a dramatic rise in membership.

It therefore has to build a new stadium,

Camp Nou, which opens in 1957
with a capacity for 93,000 spectators.

CAMP NOU OPENING
24 September 1957

The largest stadium in Europe.

This Barça wins four League titles
and five Spanish Cups in ten years.

And also the European trophy
at the time, the Latin Cup,

as there wasn't any European Cup.

Barça was the dominant force
not only in Spain,

but also played
a very major role in Europe.

Barça experiences its best period
since the end of the Civil War.

It plays the best football,
has the best European player,

and is now ready to sign
the best South American player,

the Argentine Alfredo Di Stéfano,

registered to River Plate,
but playing for Bogotá's Millonarios.

With two star players,

Barcelona would be without any rivals
for years to come.

But Real Madrid, which has not won
a League title for 21 years,

interferes in the signing.

Barça had reached
an agreement with River Plate,

which was the Argentine club

that owned the rights to Di Stéfano,

and what Madrid did
was reach an agreement

with Bogotá's Millonarios,

the team Di Stéfano was playing in,

and I emphasis the words
at the time, "in defiance".

The player could only be signed

from River Plate as they
owned his registration rights,

so Barça was legally
doing the right thing.

Di Stéfano comes to Barcelona

and trains with the players.

They want him to play in a friendly,

but joint action
is taken by the Federation,

Real Madrid,

and the
Falangist National Sports Delegation

to stop the process.

Then you can see

how the legislation on the entry
of foreign players changes daily.

When Barça already has him signed,

the Federation decides that
foreign players can't enter,

but revokes the order
when he might go to Madrid.

There's a constant to and fro

in terms of legal actions
in the summer of 1953

so that Di Stéfano can't join Barça.

The fact that the dictatorship
favored Real Madrid

could be explained
by its mistrust of Barça,

because of its Catalan
nationalist history.

The conflict dragged on for many months.

The Spanish Football Federation ruled

that Di Stéfano would end up playing
one year in each team,

starting with Real Madrid,

a humiliating solution
that Barça rejected.

Real Madrid's history
is built on Di Stéfano.

Madrid's world-renowned history

is based on the five European Cups
it wins with Di Stéfano.

It is no wonder that this case
would go on to create a huge sense

of grievance and discontent,

which would deepen the Madrid success
and Barça's failures in the 60s.

As Barça slumped,
Real Madrid took advantage

of the sympathy
between its board and the regime,

and went on to conquer
five consecutive European Cups,

thanks to the brilliant generation
of players led by Di Stéfano.

With Kubala's retirement in 1961,

Barça was drowning in the millions
of debt it owed to build Camp Nou -

two hundred and eighty four
million pesetas at the time.

And had to sell its best player,
Golden Ball winner Luis Suárez.
[LUIS SUÁREZ, GOLDEN BALL 1960]

Barcelona had to sell Luisito Suárez,

which would be like us
selling Messi now.

So let's say we don't have Messi.

Would we notice his departure?

Of course we would.

The same thing was true
with Luisito Suárez.

A period then begins

that is incredibly poor
in sporting terms,

those 14 years without a league
title, which can be explained

not only by some relatively poor
decisions when it came to signings,

but also mainly because of
a lack of finances.

It's our eternal rival
that's winning everything

and it began with
some government favours,

but that doesn't explain
your mistakes.

It was a combination of things

and so many years of hardship

often produce
a certain feeling of victimisation.

For many years,
fans' emotions would alternate

between victimization and anger,

accompanied by harsh criticism
of the players,

often accusing them of money-grabbing,

and betraying the spirit of Gamper's
love for the club in favor of money.

Criticism always hurts.

It would be a worry if it didn't hurt.

If they criticise you and
say that your work on the pitch

is not up to scratch
or not the best in the world,

it's always upsetting,

but criticism makes you
improve and want to get better.

People think that you have to win
everything very easily,

that Barça has always been
a winning club,

but it hasn't always been like that.

The 60s were the worst
in the club's history.

Its bitterness and paralysis were
in contrast with the world's awakening.

The cultural revolution
with groups like The Beatles.

The May uprising in France,

social movements, the Space Race
between the US and the USSR,

and the first man on the Moon.

[ARMSTRONG:]
...each of the two hemispheres of Earth.

Underneath it says,

"Here men from the planet Earth
first set foot upon the Moon...

...cause I have a dream...

It was a time of social

and economic progress,
the spread of democracy.

But while Spain continued to be ruled
by General Franco's dictatorship,

most people wanted the country
to enter quickly into the modern era

that was being felt in Europe.

The Dutch team Ajax Amsterdam
was the envy of the football world.

Ajax wrested European dominance
from Real Madrid,

and revolutionized the game
with a new philosophy -

total football, which was devised
by the team's coach, Rinus Michels.

A demoralized Barça discovered the revelation
it was looking for in the Netherlands.

Rinus Michels was the first to come,

and a year later it was
the biggest Dutch star Johan Cruyff,

who received a rock star welcome.
[Barcelona Airport - El Prat]

Cruyff was in this sense
a revelation on the playing field,

alongside his image as
a young, modern player

who also had his mind on other things.

They asked him about divorce

and things that nobody had been able
to talk about before here

and he spoke openly as
a very liberal person

from that point of view.

Cruyff certainly had an image

and symbolised the Europe
that we couldn't gain access to.

He gave us new hope

and so we started perfecting
the type of football

that came from the Netherlands,

which Rinus Michels
had already brought over

and incorporated here,
"Total Football",

with all us players running
hard and applying pressure.

It was Cruyff who honed the system.

In that year
when we swept the board.

From the beginning,
when I started to play

in that season,

we didn't lose any matches
to win the league title.

All the public was behind us,

all the press and all of Spain,

all the results went our way,

so the team was so confident

that nobody could stop us.

I'd probably crack my head open
if I tried that today,

but it was a cross that I received
and I didn't know what to do.

I could do headers, but
they weren't anything special,

so I turned and jumped

and was very lucky to strike
the ball well into the goal.

Everyone talks about the
before and after of that match.

It was very clearly a moment
that had arrived after 14 years.

I think it was a great blow
in all aspects.

1974 was a magic year for Barça.

Five-nil against Madrid
at the Bernabéu and the League title.

A major blow that hurt Real Madrid's pride
and increased Barça's self-esteem.

It was Barça's revenge,
[Sant Jaume Square, Barcelona - 14 May 1974]

for until then the culés had a complex
about the almighty Madrid,

pampered by the regime.

I think Barça is "Més que un club".

I mean, obviously,
you become aware of the history,

you become aware of the fact
that was pretty much the place

where they could speak their language
during, you know, the Franco days,

and civil unrest.

And you hear these stories about...

people, you know, being in prison
because of speaking Catalan, etc.

I... got the sensation that...

the club, Barça, was almost
like a representation

of Catalonia against the rest of Spain
and, in particular, Franco's Real Madrid.

And hence such a great rivalry.

And I think even as a foreigner,
as a foreign player coming in,

you sort of grasp
that importance, significance.

I remember my first game,
that was at Madrid.

When we arrived,
they would just be going "Spain, Spain!",

as if to say, "We are Spain,
you are not Spain", you know?

And it was unbe...
That's when you start seeing that,

that's when you want to really
find out what it's about.

Absolutely! A lot of people I know

think that when Barça plays
against Real Madrid,

it's really Catalonia versus Spain.

It's hard to explain,

you have to experience it
and understand it.

The rivalry between Barça and Madrid

first began only in the sporting sense,

but it now obviously transcends
things and is about politics.

In the 80s and 90s,

a minority of radical fans from both clubs
caused many problems

inside and outside stadiums.

Supporter groups
such as Real Madrid's, Ultra Sur,

or Futbol Club Barcelona's, Boixos Nois,

carried their sporting rivalry
to incendiary extremes.

Until the boards of both clubs
decided to take steps to isolate

and prohibit them
from entering football fields.

In recent years, Barcelona Futbol Club's
determined attitude

to eradicate violence
has led to good results.

These images have today become history,

and the rivalry between fans
has become more respectful,

and sporting in nature.

But Barça-Madrid is unique. It's not...

For a start,
they're from different cities.

I'm sure there must be
other rivalries in world football

that are strong, but...

I don't think there's anything
like this one, El Clásico, is.

There's always been
a very strong rivalry

between these two winning teams,

because they want to win

and always want to be on top.

Perhaps things have become a little
more exaggerated in recent years,

but that often happens.

It's always been that way and
I don't think it will ever change.

Definitely not.

It all wouldn't be as passionate

and perhaps we wouldn't be
as "culé" as we are now,

because everyone sometimes
needs a sense of animosity

to perhaps somehow improve.

You have to identify
a rival to be competitive,

if not both competitiveness and
competition would become meaningless.

So Madrid is obviously
one of Barça's major rivals.

Over the last 20 years,

the classic duel
between Barça and Madrid

has become one of the world's
major sporting events.

And it is passionately followed
by millions of people across five continents.

A fight that promotes and benefits
the spectacle of football,

and the popularity of both clubs.

But after its brilliant 1974 season,

with Johan Cruyff humiliating Real Madrid
and convincingly winning the League title,

success went to the heads
of the players and the board,

and things began to change.

Just as Michels was in charge
and did everything in the first year,

in the second year
Cruyff began to skip training.

He would play on Sunday,

a massage on Monday,

who knows what on Tuesday,

a day off on Wednesday,

a bath and massage on Thursday...

He began losing his speed

and if a player
loses his speed he's gone.

And he didn't have the same motivation
in his second and third year.

Johan Cruyff's star on the plain field
faded away until his departure in 1978.

But both he and coach Rinus Michels
had already imbued Barça

with a new personality.

Immediately after Cruyff,

Barça would win few titles
to excite the enthusiasm of fans,

except for a European Winners' Cup
in Basel in 1979.

That Winners' Cup breathed new life
into its growing fan base,

which was becoming increasingly
more demanding at its players.

But the club still did not have
a sufficiently clear direction.

The merits of innovating
its playing system

was still not obvious enough
in the 70s and 80s,

whereas the media advantages
of signing superstars were.

After the Cruyff experience,

Barça sought out
a new star player in 1982.

Nobody wanted a repeat
of the Di Stéfano case,

so Barça made sure to sign the star
to a contract worth millions.

Watching Maradona was like
watching a spectacle in itself.

He made a mistake
by not integrating into Catalan society.

He lived behind a wall in his house

as if was still in Argentina,

not as if he was in Barcelona.

So all his circle of friends
and people were Argentine

and he thought that Catalan society
had to somehow surrender to Maradona

and not Maradona integrating
into Catalan society.

Even his agent, Jorge Cysterpiller,
did things in a very curious way.

The difficulty he had in integrating

somehow forced him
to seek comfort or refuge

in things like sex, drugs...
ordinary things, in a way.

But I think he did it out of necessity.

He obviously received very bad advice

and fell into traps that a player of
his class theoretically shouldn't have,

but later we also saw
what happened with his life.

Everyone felt that Maradona
would make history wherever he went.

He went to Naples and did so,

then he went to the Argentine team

and scored those famous goals
against England.

He was an introverted 21- or
22-year-old when he got here

and things didn't work out,

but people still
worship Maradona a little

because of who he was
and what he meant.

Tango's before my time.

I like to listen to it,
but I'm not a big fan.

When Maradona went to Naples,

one of Barça's smartest players
of all time, Xavi Hernández,

was dreaming of some day becoming
a football magician,

like the Argentine star.

As a four-and-a-half year old,

Xavi was always kicking a ball
around everywhere,

as if nothing else existed in the world.

This and a pair of football boots.

It's true.

It was the only thing I liked as a kid.

You could give me any present,

but I always asked for a ball.

I asked for one on my birthday,
for Christmas, on Kings' Day...

Although I had, I always wanted another.

Their obsession with the ball
from early childhood

would make them
exceptional players for Barça.

They never let go of it.

The playing idea instilled
into them as kids was this -

if you always have the ball,

the opposition will never
be able to beat you.

A few years earlier,

grassroots football had come around
to this philosophy of play,

thanks to Rinus Michels
and the club's trainers,

in the belief
that training players at home

was better than signing individual
foreign players with another culture.

In 1979, the youth residence,
La Masía, was set up

to accommodate
and train grassroots football kids

from outside Barcelona.

Among them, were two boys
who would go on to make history -

Pep Guardiola and Tito Vilanova.

The two were discovered by recruiters,

traveling through towns and villages
in search of future talent.

But it would still be another few years

before the club had
true confidence in its squad.

Barça was still committed
to big signings,

some of whom were problematic characters,
such as Bernd Schuster, from Germany.

With him, Barça would once again win
a national League title in 1985,

after 11 years of missing out.

And a year later, it would return
to playing a European Cup Final.

Twenty five years had passed
since its last.

Everyone assumed Barça would win,

but the team came up
against the stubborn defense

of its opponents, Steaua Bucharest.

It ended in a 0-0 draw,

and a tragic penalty shootout.

There was so much over-confidence

that it rubbed off on the players,

because it's not normal
to go to a penalty shootout

and miss all five.

The goal was 7.32 metres wide then,

but it seemed to be 3 metres!

Duckadam was their goalie

and was known
for stopping penalties.

I don't know if I kicked it badly
or he stopped it,

as it happened to all of us.

It's almost impossible that
those five quality Barça players

couldn't kick a goal.

I think it's the biggest disappointment
in Barça's history.

It really hurts. It hurts a lot.

You can be a good team,

have great players,

but you don't always win.

You have to accept that another
team may be better than you.

It seems a lot easier
when the results are going your way,

but football or sport is not like that.

So when you don't win sometimes,
when you lose a tittle,

when you lose a league,

it seems like the end of the world.

The bitterness of that defeat
lasted two years.

Barça didn't win any titles
during the '86-'87 season,

and halfway through the next,
the players rose up against the president

over a contractual issue
involving two contracts -

Federation and image rights.

The Tax Office declared
this practice irregular,

and ordered the players to pay
what was owing,

as well as some additional fines.

The players felt cheated by the club
and accused the board.

A big scandal.

The first squad of FCB

out of respect for its fans,

who have lost out most

because of the disastrous management

of the president and board,

has been forced into making
our thoughts public.

If a player doesn't want to be here,
they can leave.

The doors are open,
because our club is above all this and...

The struggle resulted in a complete
renovation of the playing group,

and the return of the man who had
revitalized the club a few years earlier,

Johan Cruyff,
now in the post as coach.

He was clear upon arrival -

a return to total football,

although a revised and improved version,

and, above all, the club
had to stop playing the victim.

What does Barcelona want?
To be the best.

So if you want to be the best,
you have to act like the best.

If not, it makes no sense.

You can't act as a victim and
be the best. That's impossible!

So you have to be in charge in every way

and to be in charge in football
means having the ball.

It was considered a revolution
at the time,

but it wasn't a revolution
in my opinion,

you just needed people
who could do this.

Cruyff implemented
the so-called "rondo" training exercise.

The rondo technique encourages players
to avoid losing the ball when they have it,

and to steal it when they are
in the middle of the circle.

Did I invent the rondo?

Well, I always practised it
because I hated running

and that's how it came about.

We went from concentrating
on being stronger

to being more creative
and more technical,

without renouncing
our physical training.

More importance was indeed placed
on the ball, passing, controlling,

the speed of the game, the short game...

whereas before we were used to playing

more directly
to reach the goal area immediately.

Cruyff was a great coach.

And an amazing understanding
of the game and, in terms of...

both tactically and individually
as a player, you could improve and...

he was very thoughtful on the creation
of space when he had the ball.

You know, when his team attacks,
you make the field as wide as you can.

When you defend, you make it smaller.

And his training was all about
possession, keeping the ball,

making space for yourself.

And he was brilliant.

And also, he was probably still the best
player in training most of the time.

First, you look for the athlete,

then make him into a footballer.

But we changed all that,

because we first
looked for the footballer,

then changed him
into an athlete if we could.

It was at this point
that Barça began to work with

and produce players who
weren't very gifted physically,

but could play football.

One of these young players
who could play football

with more intelligence
than physical strength

was Pep Guardiola,

who entered La Masía when he was 13.

When Johan Cruyff gave him his debut
in the first squad, he was 19.

Pep became a role model for kids
at grassroots football level.

Physically, he was a normal guy.

He wasn't quick or strong,

wasn't powerful at free kicks,

but he had vision
and knew what to do at all times.

He was a bit grumpy in his early days.

He got angry with himself,

when things went well
or when things went badly...

He was very demanding with himself.

"Why are we doing this?"

"Why are we playing like this?"

"What happened during that play?"

"Why don't we try this play?"

He was a real sponge.

He went through a sponge stage
in his life when he asked questions.

Besides Guardiola, there were
other key players like Ronald Koeman,

a player
who handled the ball masterfully.

José Mari Bakero, a combative player.

Michael Laudrup,
who personified the art of dribbling.

The electric and powerful
Hristo Stoichkov,

or Romário, the Brazilian goal magician.

Everyone had an enviable
individual technique,

and Cruyff managed to make them put these
at the service of a revolutionary idea.

Technique before force.

Team play before individual actions.

Maintaining possession of the ball
to create spaces

with which to surprise your opponent.

It was sometimes

an unstoppable team when it played
at full speed and expression.

Later it could have lapses

and concede a goal
or anything could happen,

but I've never seen any other team

with such blind faith
or confidence in its game.

Cruyff's team won
the Spanish League title in '91.

And in '92,
it reached the European Cup Final

and attracted worldwide affection.

But just before the game, the ghost
of the lost final in Seville returned.

The players had a huge responsibility.

The pressure was on us,

because the Barça fans

were still scared of
losing another final

like the one
in Seville against Bucharest.

But we, and especially Johan,

were very confident
that we could beat Sampdoria.

Tension is fine, but not nervousness.

Logically, everything
around Barcelona in that final

had to do with being the victim...

Let's see if we lose,
let's see who knows what...

So I told them this,

"I don't know how often you're
going to play in a final, so enjoy it

and keep laughing not matter
what the score."

There was extra time. I think
it was at the 108-minute mark...

Obviously one of my skills is that
I'm good at taking free kicks.

There was a free kick
outside the goal area,

about 20 metres out, three or four
metres or so from the 16-metre area...

So the three of us
decided to make that play.

We noticed the defensive wall
was quite close to the goal,

so we tried to draw one of the players
out to increase the angle of the shot.

We decided it
in a flash between the three of us.

The referee whistled a foul.

I felt as if I could kick a goal,

but of course you have to be lucky,

because normally the ball hits
a defender coming out of the wall.

I struck the ball really well

and hard

towards the left-hand goalpost

and the goalie
was surprised by its speed.

It's something that's really huge
and hard to explain,

because winning such a major trophy

for the first time for Barcelona...

It's fantastic, unforgettable,

especially for me because
I scored the only goal of the match.

We arrived at Barcelona airport

and there were so many people
in the streets...

There was over a million people
in the streets of Barcelona.

I also remember
that we went back to Camp Nou

and there were
still 60 or 70,000 people there.

The Wembley hero, Ronald Koeman.
[DREAM TEAM TRIBUTE MATCH - 10 March 1999]

I couldn't have been happier that day.

Football gives you many things,

but I've never felt I'm special
because I'm a footballer.

It's true
that sometimes at a certain age

you can go a bit crazy,

but it's not really me

to honestly think
that we're gods or something special.
[Sant Jaume Square, Barcelona - 21 May 1992]

We've simply been lucky
to be here and to have won,

especially that first European Cup.

Long live Catalonia!

Long live Barça!

Citizens of Catalonia!
Now we've got it here!

Long live Barça

and long live Catalonia!

Futbol Club Barcelona had given up
on its fatalism.

It now had a dream team.

It became a recognized club, both feared
and admired throughout the world.

Two months later, Barcelona's name
would echo in all corners of the planet,

with its amazing Olympic Games.

But that revolutionary dream team
fell apart in 1996

after winning four Spanish Leagues,
a Spanish Winners' Cup,

a Champions League
and a UEFA Supercup.

Cruyff's coaching period
lasted eight years.

His final year had been disappointing,
with controversial signings

and battles with the board.

He was first succeeded
by the Englishman Bobby Robson,

and then another Dutch lover
of total football, Louis Van Gaal.

If Cruyff had acted by inspiration,

Van Gaal was a great example
of hard work and method.

For Spanian people,
it was surprising

that a trainer coach
was working so hard,

more than eight hours
in the stadium a day.

And not only training,
but also in the books, in the videos,

making structure in the club.

You have to work hard.

Not only in ball possession,
that I have to go finish.

The players have to work also

when you lose the ball.

It's about
rationalisation on the ground.

There's a square ground
in his square head,

positional play, field distribution...

He's the perfect schoolteacher.

As a teacher,
I think he's indispensable.

Louis Van Gaal left his mark.

He gave the boys from La Masía
a lot of opportunities,

bringing two great future players
into the first squad -

Carles Puyol and
Xavi Hernández.

In Xavi's case, his fate was tied
to that of Pep Guardiola,

for when he left, Xavi would replace him
as the playmaker.

Guardiola had already said
goodbye to one stage.

He had established himself
as a key figure in the team,

but he didn't feel appreciated enough
ten years after his debut,

and decided to go abroad.

His farewell was
on the 11th of April 2001.

The fans couldn't understand why a player
who'd been trained in Barça for 13 years,

a La Masía boy, now wanted to leave
when he was at the peak of his career.

When he announces
that he's leaving Barça,

he thinks he can play at Juve,
in an elite team,

and then finds himself
playing with Brescia,

a team that's somehow like saying,

"Wow, you left Barça
to end up in Brescia? No way!"

It was all about
contractual circumstances.

Finally, Juve pulls out
of an agreement to sign him

and he ends up playing in Rome.

It was fundamentally important
for Pep Guardiola, the man,

to leave home.

He felt undervalued by the directors.

He felt a sense of adventure

and that sense of adventure
took him to Brescia, to Roma,

and it took him
to a league in the Gulf.

It confused me about a great player
playing at that level.

He enjoyed it, so fine.

But he tried to play for Manchester United.
He was interviewed by Sir Alex Ferguson,

but playing for United,
even when on a trial, "una prueba",

for Manchester City,
and they said, "No, thanks."

What a strange experience
for one of the great,

great modern European footballers.

Next Tuesday, Josep Guardiola
will make the trip from Brescia to Rome

for a second drug test after
testing positive to Nandrolone

after the Lazio-Brescia game.

It's another step in his difficult,
lengthy battle to prove his innocence.

His first reaction was despair,
he couldn't believe it.

But from then on he tried
his best to seek the truth.

Anti-Doping Control Committee

He said he hadn't taken anything
and the body itself produced it.

He became an expert in the
production of Nandrolone

and didn't stop until he reached
the courts, where he was acquitted.

Guardiola's adventure away from Barça
had been very unfortunate.

But these difficulties shaped his character,
and this would become crucial

a few years later,
when he returned to the club.

An exceptionally competitive nature
is essential in order to reach the top,

as recognized by one of the best
basketball players of all time, Pau Gasol,

who was also trained at Barça.

It's a question of
personality and character

in the person and player,

your ambition and appetite
to remain at a certain level

and do whatever it takes
to stay there or keep improving.

So for me it's a question
of mentality and attitude,

how you act, how you deal with things,

how you focus
and the priority you give to this

and what you're willing to sacrifice
to achieve these aims.

I demand a lot from myself and
then compete against others

and this motivates me because
I'm a competitive person.

Pau Gasol joined Barça at 16.

And with him, the team became
Spanish Junior Champions.

At 21, he took the risk
and made the leap to the NBA,

where he quickly established himself
as a world star.

Gasol had grown up

in one of Futbol Club Barcelona's
most successful departments.

These departments, whether basketball,
handball, roller hockey, or futsal,

have won countless national and
international trophies in all competitions.

Throughout its history,

Barça has also had departments
of athletics, rugby,

baseball, volleyball, and ice hockey.

And all of them have contributed

to increasing
the sporting club's fame worldwide.

Unlike many other clubs,
Barça has never been in the hands

of one single owner
or private corporation.

This is a truly unique fact.

It is owned by its 150,000 members,

who express themselves democratically

and vote to decide on the club's directors
and major projects for the future.

Unfortunately,
the era of Cruyff's dream team

was followed by a few years
of failed projects,
[PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS]

so the club's members voted
for a radical policy change in 2003.
[PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS]

This can be a great day
if it leads to the change

that I believe the club needs.

It was now headed by a group
of young professionals

launching a new project,
with Frank Rijkaard as coach,

and a player who encapsulated
the magic of Brazil,

Ronaldinho Gaúcho.

I'll do everything I can
to bring joy to everybody.

Ronaldinho's first years
in Barcelona were really amazing

and he sort of ended that situation
that we had over several years,

especially after the Van Gaal era.

These were very difficult periods
after Cruyff

and it was really like a rebirth,

and the person who made
it greater was Ronaldinho.

The stadium was full

and people were starting
to wear Barça shirts again.

He was a magical player,

capable of doing things we'd never
seen in the history of football.

He did some really amazing stuff,

some dribbling on the wing

that brought people to their feet.

That positive glow and laugh and smile of
his were hard to resist for many people.

Nobody could resist Ronaldinho's smile.

Not even the foreign players,
or those from La Masía.

But he also brought out of his shell
a shy, short, and introverted boy of 17

who would soon become
the world's best player... Leo Messi.

He had entered La Masía
when he was 13,

and had continued to make progress.

He had the qualities to become
better than everybody.

Different, small...

Truth is I don't really remember,

but it must have been

in my second year here in Barcelona.

His desire to want to be
what he ultimately became
[La Masia director]

was so strong

that it gave him a special value,

an enormous talent, a desire to win

and play competitive sport
as if it were a game,

a game that he always wants to win,

but something that deep down
inside is really fun for him.

It's true that Barça from the start
said that it was relying on him

and wanted him and that in the long-term

he had to become that amazing player

you could already see in those videos

when he was 10 or 11.

A guy says to me,

"There's a kid who plays
really well and stuff..."

The usual stuff like,
"This boy's a phenomenon."

Another guy says,
"Sure, but he's very small."

Then another,
"He's a table footy player."

So everyone kind of claimed him.

Everyone recognised his talent,
which was dribbling...

"There's no doubts about this guy,
you can already sign him."

"He's out of this world,
this guy's from another galaxy..."

He did different things.
He was different.

All of him. Skilled, fast...

He looked so dull
and lifeless off the field,

but when he was on the ground
he became another person.

Leo's a guy who came in

and was introverted,
shy and couldn't play...

The club helped him medically because
he could barely stretch himself...

His family was in Argentina.

He could've been vulnerable.

Given that he didn't have his brothers
around him or his mother close by...

It's normal that things
would have been difficult for him.

It was hard because it was a big change.

I was 13 and left everything behind,

my family, my friends, my country.

Truth is it was difficult.

I was lucky to have landed
in Barcelona, in La Masia,

on a team with great kids

who treated me really well
from the start.

I went to school
with the kids from La Masia.

I practically spent all day with them

and that made things easier for me.

The one great positive thing
about Leo Messi

is that he fought
for what he really wanted

when nobody could really see it.

He fought a lot and dug his heels in

and became successful,

success in searching, in dreaming...

And why shouldn't a boy dream
even though he's away from his family?

I think I'd like to play football

because I love how the chemistry
goes through the players,

and how you have to work as a team.

I think it's really fun.

I like the movement and I think
that this is what I'm best at.

So I'd like to capitalize on it.

They pass good, they don't dribble.

They take space.
If any opportunities, they take them.

They try their best.

I like how Barcelona passes the ball,
and their possession.

And how they can make
their ball movement,

and I know they're a really good team.

It's my life. I've grown up with it.

I love waking up to it every day...

As a good "culé", and as a person
who's been here since he was 12,

I think it's an emotion.

Look how shit-scared I am in this photo.

I'm frightened...

You feel scared when you sign with Barça,
everything seems so big.

The club's greatness
really overwhelms you.

This photo is from my early days,
from the first photos of me in Barça.

I think we've retained a lot of things

from when we were so young and innocent.

You learn a lot from life along the way,

but you also retain many hopes
and dreams you had at that age,

which have grown and supported you,
and many that have come true.

Football is a large factory of dreams.

Each year, Barça monitors about
8,000 kids throughout the world,

through its extensive network of scouts

who travel from town to town
looking for players who have the makings.

Thousands of videos are viewed,
thousands of reports are prepared,

and thousands of tests are made
of potentially interesting players,

but very few receive the call
from Futbol Club Barcelona.

About 50 to 60 kids
are signed from these 8,000.

We're talking about
a massive filtering process,

and not only of those kids
that Barça goes to see,

but also those presented by parents

who believe their children have got
enough talent to get into Barça.

There are countless letters
from kids and parents,

thousands of videos on YouTube

with footage of athletes...

They see it as a unique opportunity,

because if Barça is
on the lookout for talent,

then why can't it be my son?

You have to leave a lot of
people behind along the way.

And when you do let go of one,

the father and mother appear,

as well as the kid
[FCB youth program director, 2005-10]

and sometimes the agent at the last minute.
[FCB youth program director, 2005-10]

And naturally the father asks why,

it affects the mother a lot more

and the kid ends up crying.

Not everyone manages to make it here.

It's difficult
and it's even harder to remain.

Barça's like that, a pyramid
on top of which the chosen

or the luckier ones remain.

And it's cruel because you're a kid,

still green.

Your emotions are really sensitive.

They teach you a little
about the realities of life,

how competitive it is,
those who'll be there next year...

It's really tough.

Everyone noticed
that Messi was very good

as soon as he arrived at La Masía.

But the board had trouble deciding
on whether to sign a scrawny kid,

and so postponed his contract.

This situation unnerved Leo's parents,

because they needed to know if he was
staying or returning to Argentina.

Until Charlie Rexach
did something unexpected.

His father and his agent said,

"Hey you, they're messing with me."

So we had to do something

and I tried
to calm things down by saying,

"Don't worry,
I'll fix things up quickly."

So we grab the nearest piece
of paper and I write down

that "as technical director of FCB

I agree to sign Messi as long as
we discuss the amounts, etc."

So I sign it

and for my sake had to get down to work.

Basically it happened like that,
but never thinking

that this napkin
would become so important.

Remember my name, Leo Messi.

I was already happy to be here
with my two companions

and it's a very special day for me.

That commitment signed
on an ordinary paper napkin

would change the recent history of Barça.

Messi grew up
in the world's best football school,

and when it was turn for him
to make the leap to the first squad,

he did it brilliantly.

With Ronaldinho
as Master of Ceremonies

and Messi
as the promising young talent,

Barça had a fantastic team,

going on to win
two consecutive League titles

and its second European Cup in Paris.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL 2005-06
Stade de France, Paris - 17 May 2006

But after three enviable years
of fine play

things would not flow
as smoothly as before.

The press published news
of the Brazilian football star

enjoying the night life,
missing training sessions,

and growing a belly.

The hangover had arrived
after the dream come true of Paris,

and Frank Rijkaard was powerless
to change things.

After the 2007-2008 season,

the board sacked Ronaldinho
and Frank Rijkaard.

Rijkaard was replaced
by Pep Guardiola,

which came as a big surprise.

A year earlier, he had quietly returned
to the club to coach Barça B,

forming a tandem with his good friend
from La Masía, Tito Vilanova.

Despite having La Masía's DNA
in his blood,

very few people
trusted in him to perform.

Welcome to this season,

welcome to your home.

Fasten your seatbelts
because we're going to have fun.

Long live Barça,
long live Catalonia and good luck.

In 2009, the team won
all six titles it competed in.

the King's Cup, the League,
the Champions Cup, the Spanish Supercup,

the European Supercup
and the Club World Cup.

I've never seen
a sustained period of soccer

which lifted the spirits,

which made the human condition
seem so worthwhile,

as Barcelona's era
under Pep Guardiola and Tito Vilanova.

It was, as far as I am concerned,
not about were they better than this era,

or better than Madrid,
or better than Milan.

It simply was something that,
if you went to watch them, home or away,

you came away
with you hair standing on end,

with your adrenaline rushing

and a feeling that you've been
in one of life's great adventures.

I don't think there's any question that,
for a period of time,

Barcelona is the best team,
playing the best football on the planet.

Guardiola's years, as Messi emerged,

with Xavi, Iniesta, Piqué,
so many great players,

that Barcelona were...

And this unique style
that Guardiola sort of encompassed,

the high pressing,
the quick pressing for a few seconds,

the ability to keep the ball,

the "tiqui-taca", it was just...

It was like they evolved the game.

When he talks to a group of men,
or women, I suppose,

he is inspirational,
he commands attention,

and he commands loyalty.

Pep Guardiola unified
all those qualities.

And that made him exceptional.

I don't think he ever pretended
to be perfect.

One of the things
that was a strength of his that...

He was on the players' back.
On their shoulders.

All the time.
Any player you speak to will say,

"He's a bit too much.
He could get right on our backs."

And that was good,
and eventually it burns people out.

But for that short time,
Pep Guardiola was a bright burning candle.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL 2008-09
Olympic Stadium, Rome - 27 May 2009

Barça experienced
a magnificent dream era.

It conquered almost everything
in four years.

Fourteen titles,
including three Leagues,

two King's Cups and
two Champions.

A record never achieved before by anyone
in the history of football.

Unimaginable success,
even for his teacher and precursor,

Johan Cruyff.

There was a person named Johan Cruyff

who arrived and changed
the philosophy of playing football.

He wanted to be a protagonist,
get the ball,

maintain possession,
dominate, play attacking,

attractive football, in which
people saw themselves reflected

in the sense
that we really dominated the game.

And we've been practicing this
for 20 or 30 years,

ever since he arrived as coach.

Cruyff's period was special...

in many ways, because...

it was the first time Barcelona
had been ultimately successful in Europe.

And he did that, and he did it
with beautiful football as well,

because Cruyff's whole philosophy
was about making the game entertaining,

and keeping the ball, and making space,
and attractive football and great players.

And, you know,
what Cruyff did was special

because he initiated
everything that followed.

You wouldn't probably have had
the Guardiola era with...

the Messis, Iniestas and Xavis
of this world without what Cruyff did.

So in many ways I think
Cruyff deserves more credit,

but if you asked me which team I wanted
to see, the Guardiola team...

for me has played the best football
I've ever seen.

It's not only about just winning,
but also how we go about it,

and so people admired
and still admire us for that.

I think that if you look now,
retrospectively,

to try and identify
one leader of the orchestra, one genius,

if you reduce it to the coach,

you forget about the constant creativity
of Xavi Hernández.

You forget that, probably,
at the tip of the machine

there was a cutting edge diamond
called Leo Messi,

who did things individually
that most of us have never seen before.

But football is not only a team sport.

And that's why it's so reaffirming
of the human spirit.

It asks disparate people
of disparate ages

to come together
and find a common aim.

The key to success

of this generation of athletes,

some of whom have been
there two or three years,

like Iniesta, Messi, Cesc,
or Jordi Alba and Víctor Valdés...

Many of them had played
for the same team

in lower levels, as kids or juniors...

I mean, they knew each other
at the age of 13 or 14,

they had suffered hardships,
they had won some championships,

and this unites them. That's the key.

Nobody disturbed this spirit,

although Real Madrid
tried its best to do so.

It was logical.
Barça was the public's favorite.

To reverse this situation,
Madrid hired José Mourinho,

an old familiar face in Barcelona.

Years ago, he'd been an assistant
to Bobby Robson and Louis Van Gaal.

Then he had began
his meteoric career as a coach,

ending up at Chelsea
and Inter Milan,

where he argued against Barça's supremacy
with inflammatory remarks.

Despite this,
he secretly kept an eye on Barça

so when he learned that Rijkaard had left,
he offered to take over.

But the club decided to go for Guardiola,
and this upset him.

Before Pep Guardiola got the job,

José Mourinho unleashed his entire armory
to get the job.

His agent, Jorge Mendes,
burnt the mobile phone

of Txiki Begiristain
and Ferran Soriano, saying,

"My client needs the job, he'll change,
he'll play the kind of football you want.

Give him the job. He wants the job.
He'll be perfect for you."

They went, they met him
in a secret meeting in Lisbon.

He gave a brilliant presentation.
It was very seductive.

But when they said,

"We'd like you to have
a different character,

as coach of Barcelona, we'd like you
to handle the media differently.

We don't want to be putting out fires
all the time,

because you've caused a fight."
And he went, "No...

this is my way."

Because he was angry
at Futbol Club Barcelona

for not giving him the job

when the club had
its greatest era of talents.

Oh, absolutely, he felt slighted,

he felt hurt because of Barça.
They rejected him.

He lost a battle and that
caused him great frustration.

Madrid signs up Mourinho

to finish with Barça,
not to make Madrid better.

That's the great contradiction of Madrid,

it doesn't know
how to stop Barça's growth,

so it signs up the person it thinks
has the formula to stop Barça.

Mourinho went out of his way
to rattle and destabilize Barça.

With him on the bench as coach,

the Clásicos heated up
and sparks began to fly.

The tension was palpable
on the ground itself.

The Madrid players ran on to the field
to destroy Barça's game

with clashes and provocations.

The matches became very rough.
Even violent.

For Barça fans, Madrid was using force
to destroy the beauty of Barça's game.

For Barça fans, Guardiola was Mozart.
And Mourinho, the envious Salieri.

The footage of you looking to
poke Tito Vilanova in the eye,

is this part of the philosophy that
you say you're teaching in football?

Me?

Yes.

"Pito" Vilanova?

Yes, Tito Vilanova.

I don't know what you're talking about.

The question you're asking me

about "Pito" Vilanova
or whatever his name is...

no, I don't know his name.

No, I don't have anything to say...

That's for the referee to say,
or the fourth referee,

or the TV cameras...

I have nothing to say.

One day, not here, but outside,

a situation will arise
that won't be any good.

Things will get nasty one day.

It's eternal, isn't it?

They had Cain and Abel in the Bible.

For every good guy,
there has to be a bad guy.

For every bad guy, to half the audience,
he'll look like the good guy.

When it comes to football,

there's that saying that I use a lot,

"It's better to win roughly
than lose cleanly."

It's like that in football.

It's like saying, "We're in today's world,
let's win however we can."

It's a bit like that.

So what happens?

Some coaches even today
say about matches,

"We can't win with the referee
they've given us today!"

You have a game plan that
the referee doesn't let you implement.

Bang, he's gone and said it.

Do you see?

Given that Mr Mourinho has
addressed me in a familiar manner,

I'll do the same.

He called me Pep so I'll call him José.

I don't know
which is Mr José's camera...

It must be all of these...

Tomorrow at 8.45pm we'll face
each other here on the ground.

He's already won off the pitch.

I'll give him his particular
Champions off the field.

He can take it home and enjoy it
with all his others.

In this room, he's the effing boss,
the effing master,

who knows most in this world.

I don't want to compete with him
even for a moment.

You'll be the effing master here,
but I challenge you on the field.

So he challenges Madrid on the field
and is lucky enough to win.

Why?

Why expel Pepe?

Why?

That's when Mourinho's "whys" appear,

because on
Mourinho's theoretically ideal stage,

which is body-against-body,
Guardiola also wins.

I think the contrasting styles
of Guardiola and Mourinho

have been one of the great fascinations
of the modern era of football.

They're very contradictory.

They're both very successful.

And, you know,
you compare one against the other,

these great battles that they've had
over a period of time at different clubs.

Those years of the lively war of styles
between Barça and Madrid

evolved in favor of Barça.

Among the classic duels of that era,

Barça fans remember two in particular.

The 2-6 that was played in Madrid
in May 2009,

and the 5-0 in Camp Nou
in November 2010.

Here, the Barça players
were vastly superior,

displaying the most spectacular version
of total football,

with absolute ball control.

But the truth is that those games
were just two more battles

in a long war between two rivals that lead
and sportingly respect each other.

I think the two feed off each other.

Barça without Madrid
might not be as good,

and the same goes for Madrid
without Barça.

When you have a team like Madrid
in your league competition,

it makes you always
want to go to the limit

and win every game to win league titles,

so that when you go to Europe
you've already acquired

this mentality
and this intensity to win games.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL 2010-11
Wembley Stadium, London - 28 May 2011

As would happen a few months later
on the 28th of May 2011,

in the final of the Champions Cup
in Wembley against Manchester United.

This was surely one of the team's
best games to go down in history.

Captain Carles Puyol made a gesture
showing how united all the players were.

He handed over his captain's armband
to Eric Abidal,

so that he could
lift up the cup in his place.

Abidal had been recovering
from his first bout of liver cancer.

To describe Carles' gesture
of giving me the armband...

there are really no words.

They're the sorts of things
you don't see every day in team sports.

This is what Barça is all about,

it's more than a club,
more than a family.

Abidal had to fight two bouts of cancer.

He seemed to have overcome
the first well,

but then a second,
stronger bout appeared,

forcing him to accept his cousin's liver
in a transplant that saved his life.

Glory cannot hide player fragility,

exposed as they are to illness
or injury throughout their careers.

I proved that I was a fighter

and that's what allowed me
to have the strength

to try once again to overcome my ordeal.

As I said,
the important thing is to fight.

We should never give up,
no matter what happens in our lives.

We should make the most of
our opportunities, whether good or bad.

That's what life is all about.

Meanwhile Guardiola,

the great motivator,
the person moving the gears,

was fighting against everything,
even against his own high demands.

His passion and dedication to work,
controlling everything,

was starting to exhaust him physically
and mentally.

Nine tenths... of obsession

makes you brilliant.

But it's that final tenth...

which you need to control.

When you need to say it's okay

to phone a player at home
if you think he's out,

at night, when he shouldn't be.

It's okay to break the rules and say,

"Where were you at the weekend?
Why weren't you at home?"

These things are okay.

It won't always work.
Some players will do this.

But a great manager will try to control.

I think everybody
got fed up with Guardiola,

because he was so demanding,

in terms of diet,
training, match preparation...

This self-demanding culture

ends up becoming unbearable
at some point.

He realised that
he'd also lost his influence

on Messi and the players,
with those talks of his.

When you have to come up
with a new one every day,

they end up not having the same effect,

so when that happened he left.

At the end of his fourth season
and against everyone's wishes,

the players, fans and board,

Guardiola decided
to leave Futbol Club Barcelona,

causing a huge commotion.

The reason is simple,
it's been four years

and time wears everything down
and I'm worn out.

I feel all empty
and need to fill myself up again.

It's been a high demand.

I need to experience that life,
that passion,

that energy that's so necessary

to motivate so many other things,
especially your players.

There's so much to learn from him.
Every man who tries to copy a genius

will interpret it in his own way,
there is no perfect copy.

But the values
that his football stood for,

the value
that his work stood for was...

creativity, daring,

philosophy, intelligence,
style, passion...

victory.

What more do you want in football?
The thing that makes me sad

is actually the terrible anti-reaction...

by the idiots,
the barbarians who were like...

"Your football you were so proud of,
your football which was so seductive."

His football that was the best ever...
"Well, it doesn't work now.

It was only a product of Pep
and Xavi and Iniesta and Messi.

Let's go back to playing
basic, physical, quick football."

Which to me is like
prehistoric thinking.

But it would be difficult to go back
to the rough football of the past.

The Barça of Guardiola's era exported
his idea of the game to the world,

and it was copied and adapted
by many others,

starting with the Spanish national team,

which won two consecutive
European Championships

and the World Cup in 2010,

thanks to its incorporation
of a majority of Barça players.

Guardiola left after being named
the best coach in the world.

I want to dedicate this title
to Tito Vilanova,

my friend, my companion, my assistant.

This one's for you, kid. It's for you.
Thank you!

He was replaced by his friend
from La Masía, Tito Vilanova.

The style of play created by Cruyff
and improved by Guardiola

was passed on to good hands.

Tito had been his right hand man,

playing a much more important role
than that of assistant coach.

Their relationship was that of equals.

They made all their decisions
by mutual agreement,

so there wasn't that hierarchy
of first and second.

He was an atypical assistant coach

with a strong character,
[FCB youth program director, 2014-15]

a direct man, a frank man
[FCB youth program director, 2014-15]

and a man who told you things straight
if he had to.

And I especially think
he was a brave man.

You need to have a certain type
of courage to join Barcelona...

Okay, not courage,
but you can't be scared of losing

or making decisions,
and he wasn't scared at all.

SPANISH LEAGUE CHAMPIONS 2012-13
Camp Nou, Barcelona - 19 May 2013

Tito accepted the challenge
to succeed Guardiola.

It converted his greatest dream
into a reality.

He did it magnificently well,

leading the team to a record 100 points
in the Spanish League.

Barça continued to win,
remained upright with its virtues intact,

but personally there was a cooling down
of the long friendship with Pep Guardiola.

And even worse,

a deadly illness appeared
that would never leave him.

Cancer is always
a dramatic metaphor of defeat.

The end of a dream.

It's hard to talk about
if Tito hadn't gotten ill.

If Tito hadn't died.

However...

I think Tito Vilanova was rather
the perfect successor to Pep Guardiola.

He was perfect for Barcelona.

Tito Vilanova and Pep Guardiola
were not alike...

in almost any way.

Their love of football,
their shared philosophy of football,

their friendship...

That made them alike.

Their personalities,
their appetites, their...

visions about their lives...

very, very different, I think.

And what that made Tito Vilanova
uniquely equipped to do...

was to help change Barcelona
after Pep Guardiola left.

Tito Vilanova would have managed to change.

It would have been healthier
for Futbol Club Barcelona,

it would have been healthier
for the cantera,

but he's been a great loss
to Futbol Club Barcelona, a great loss.

It was said
that Tito's death ended a cycle.

But let us not fool ourselves,
for the sun rises and sets every day.

A cycle ends
and another begins.

And it all forms part of a continuum,

an evolution from that first sun.

The first rose with Gamper,
a passionate sports fan, a true dreamer.

But then others followed in his path,
who would shine even more.

Barça's heyday was made possible
by a generation of homegrown players,

by Xavi,

Messi,

Iniesta,

Busquets,

and Piqué,

with the addition
of other foreign players,

such as Rakitić,

Neymar,

and Suárez.

As well as another coach whose
heart beats Barça... Luis Enrique,

who also believes in playing
creative, daring football.

KING'S CUP FINAL 2014-15
Camp Nou, Barcelona - 30 May 2015

Thanks to all of these people,

Barça brilliantly won
its fifth European Cup title in Berlin,

against Turin's Juventus in 2015.

A few days earlier,
it had also won its 27th King's Cup,

and 23rd Spanish League title.

For the first time in history,

a club, Barça,
has managed once again

to win the three major titles at stake
in a single season.

SPANISH LEAGUE CHAMPIONS 2014-15
Camp Nou, Barcelona - 23 May 2015

Futbol Club Barcelona has dominated
world football in recent years,

and has triggered the dreams
of millions of athletes and fans

throughout the planet.

The reason Barcelona is what is is...

It's not because of Cruyff,
not because of Guardiola,

not because of Messi,
not because of Neymar,

not because of, you know,
the players in the past,

but it's about the club.

And it's about
the feelings within a club.

Not only to play winning football,

but to play attractive football.
It has an ethos.

It's a very special place,
a very special stadium.

It's one of the great clubs of the world.

And it always will be.

It's just been a beautiful bonus that,
over the last 20 years,

it's enjoyed massive success.

And brought in great coaches
with wonderful players.

And they've been a gift
to the eye to watch.

But it really is the heart of the club
that's important.

It's about the supporters, los culés.

It's about the people that
live for Barça and the football club.

WE ARE BARÇA

Barcelona is more than a club,

because of all that it represents,

both professionally
and at an amateur club level.

Barça tries to establish itself
throughout the world

to leave its mark,

how it sees things, how it educates,
how it plays football...

Trying to put
a little of Catalonia in the world

so that people abroad
can feel how things are here.

That's why Barça is great

and will continue to be
more than a club.

I think some people may be still in love
with Barça and the Catalan identity.

Fine.

More than anything else,
what Barcelona's modern era has done,

it's teaching kids,
it's teaching coaches,

that football can be different,
that football isn't about height,

and about power, and about pace.

It's about intelligence,
and risk, and technique,

and daring,
and keeping hold of the ball.

From a distance, it's now not about
Catalan identity or "Més que un club".

It's about people saying,
"I want to play like that."

"I want my son to play like that.
I want to win like that."

It's amazing and nice

to live what I'm living,

being on a ground,

creating a play, scoring a goal

and seeing so many people
applauding or saying my name.

It's really nice.

The views and opinions expressed
in this film were freely made by each person

under his or her own responsibility
and were neither suggested nor dictated

by the producers or any of
their contracted staff.

I have several.

When I was in Rome,
the World Cup Final,

in London,

also the King's Cup
at Calderón...

I have several.

The first year
of my career,

when I was an
11-year-old youngster,

I earned
4,000 pesetas,

my first salary.

I made sure to get
my mum a toaster,

as we didn't have
one at home.

I hope that
in a few years time,

some of us can be
a part of that history.

Subtitles by JohnCoffey_09