Busquets stopped time in Barcelona

The wind that blows from Bogatell into Barcelona's streets seems to have a sedative anesthetic effect on the residents. The pace of the Catalan city is not that of many European metropolises devoted to technology-driven progress and the privatization of public spaces. In Barcelona, life goes by at 0.5x without this making the city seem to lag the rest of the world, but like a system that allows all its gears to synchronize. A model that has the virtue of making the difficult and baroque easy, that deliberately has in the lowering of rhythms the key to experiencing a port city, very touristy, with a tight urbanism that alternates perpendiculars with spaces where the eye has a horizontal outlet. This all-Catalan way of marking time, alternating rhythm and pause, was also that of the great Barcelona of Guardiola and that entire generation, which could not have won what it won without the breaks of Sergi Busquets. The Barcelona captain yesterday officially announced that he will leave the club, after 15 years in the first team, 31 trophies (waiting for La Liga, which he can raise as early as next weekend) and the third-highest number of appearances ever. 

When Busquets made his debut with Barcelona first team in September 2008, in that midfield trio composed of Xavi and Iniesta, the European idea of a playmaker had different characteristics from those of "Busi." For example, Scholes, as well as Mascherano were more intense and dynamic, Pirlo better at launching the ball, and in general the European midfielder of the time was always bound by a physicality that did not reflect Busquets' long-limbed one. 

To look at Busquets today in the context of the era, he seems like an anachronistic footballer, more related to futsal or the typical South American number 5 who hold the ball and then come off the pressure with technique. The system of that Barcelona did not need players to carry the ball, and Busquets' greatness was precisely that he gave a new meaning to the number 5, from that moment rated as a 10 also because of his ability to pass the ball quickly and in the short term, as also stated by Riquelme, perhaps the best performer with those skills.

Sergi Busquets' legacy, then, has been primarily that of playing a new role, taking the parts and areas of the field of the playmaker without ever being one, in a team where the direction of play was shifted further up the field. It is likely that by characteristics in the Premier League, Busquets' career would never have begun, he who had been rejected by Barcelona in the youth ranks when he played as a striker, only to be picked up again at the age of 15, after a move to teams in the Catalan suburbs and a move back to midfield. In a year from Barça's B team to the Champions League final against Manchester United, the break Busi gave Pep's game was decisive in making all his teammates play better. 

The selflessness needed to tell the story of Busquets' career-which apparently could continue in Saudi Arabia or MLS-does not come through the rhetoric of sacrifice, but as a tactical necessity, very much in keeping with the character of the character. Guardiola said of him, "I appreciate his humility. (...) the fact that he knows how to live without having to be the protagonist. He knows that his teammates understand that without him they could not do many of the things they are able to do."

Even in the post-Pep Guardiola years, Busquets has played his role without changing field position or tasks. In a playing landscape that has changed radically since 2008, the break that Busi has given the game has helped so many starting 11 (10+1) to have a more uniform idea of even brainy tactical concepts, almost restoring a sanity and physicality to the teams in which he has played and won.