Barcelona’s risky bet to mortgage the club’s future paid off on Sunday – at least – when a team led by newcomer Robert Lewandowski won their first Spanish league title in four years.
Barcelona won their 27th league title, second only to Real Madrid’s 35, after a 4–2 win at Espanyol with four rounds remaining thanks to two goals by Lewandowski.
Now the club can finally start a new chapter after winning their first major title since Lionel Messi’s painful exit two years ago.
Here’s how Barcelona led the league since round 13, brushed aside an arguably more talented Real Madrid side and gave Atlético Madrid no chance to catch up.
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When Joan Laporta, the club president who first appointed Pep Guardiola nearly 15 years ago, returned for a second term in charge at the end of the 2019-2020 season, he found a club in ruins.
The club’s financial situation, with 1.3 billion euros ($1.4 billion) in debt, meant that Laporta could not honor his pledge to persuade Messi to stay. Instead, Laporta told Barcelona’s greatest player that he had to leave because the club could not afford him.
So last season, after leading the team to zero title wins, Laporta and his board decided it was time for drastic action. He sold 25% of his Spanish league TV rights for the next 25 years for 667 million euros ($725 million), as well as other assets.
That cash was used to improve the squad with the transfers of Lewandowski, Jules Kunde, Rafinha and the signings of free agents Frank Casey, Andreas Christensen and Marcos Alonso.
Even though Barcelona once again flopped in the Champions League group stage, in addition to an early loss to Manchester United in the Europa League playoffs, it brought Barcelona back into contention in the Spanish league.
Lewasdowski
Lewandowski showed the former Bayern Munich star still has the ability to regularly find holes in the opponent’s defense when given only a small amount of space.
The 34-year-old Lewandowski had no trouble adjusting to his new team after eight hugely successful seasons with Bayern. The Poland striker leads the Spanish league with 21 goals.
Rafinha added seven goals while sharing playing time with Ousmane Dembele, who scored six times in the league before being sidelined with an injury for several weeks.
ter stegen
After a few years where the German lost his best form, Marc-Andre ter Stegen returned to play as the goalkeeper who helped Barcelona win their last Champions League title in 2015.
While Madrid leads the league with 70 goals, Barcelona only needed 64 goals to win the title, thanks to its great defense which conceded a competition-low 13 goals.
Ter Stegen kept 25 clean sheets.
The backline was led by Ronald Araújo, who made sure Barcelona did not miss out on Gerard Pique’s midseason retirement. Araújo was Barcelona’s best one-on-one keeper, especially in their “Clásico” matches against Madrid’s Vinicius Júnior.
bright future
The best news for Barcelona is that its future looks secure after a steady rise from the youngest of starters.
Midfielders Gavi Paez (18) and Pedri Gonzalez (20) have won the last two Golden Boy awards for Europe’s best under-21 players, while Alejandro Balde (19) has replaced long-time starter Jordi Alba as Xavi’s favorite this season. Substituted as an alternative. ,
What will happen next?
Barcelona face an uncertain off-season, even without considering the possibility that Messi turns down more lucrative offers – from Saudi Arabia – and returns from Paris Saint-Germain.
The club was barely able to meet the Spanish league’s strict financial control rules last season to register all its players, and Barcelona’s bookkeepers were in for a few more long nights.
The club still needs to reduce its wage burden, and that means it may have to sell players.
It would not be surprising to see the club consider offers for Rafinha and Dembele, who both play as right wingers, striker Annu Fati, or even midfielder Frenkie de Jong, who the club wanted to sell last summer .
A replacement will also have to be found for sporting director Matteo Alemani, one of the main architects of last season’s rebuilding of Barcelona, after announcing his surprise decision earlier this month.
One of its pressing needs on the squad is how to replace longtime midfielder Sergio Busquets, who announced last week that he would leave the club this summer.
Next season the team and its fans will have to adapt to playing in a smaller stadium while the Camp Nou is being renovated. In addition to lower ticket sales, the temporary move will also test Barcelona’s home strength: Camp Nou seats 98,000 compared to 56,000 at the Olympic Stadium.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)