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HOW FC BARCELONA ‘LOST ITS SOUL’ – CNN

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BY MATIAS GREZ

In recent times, mention Barcelona and the word “crisis” probably isn’t too far behind. For a number of years, talisman Lionel Messi, widely considered to be the greatest player of all time, has been the glue that has held the Catalan club together.

His consistently brilliant match-winning performances have papered over the figurative and literal cracks that have been steadily widening at the Camp Nou.

Yet this season especially, an aging team without an apparent identity has seen performances and results fall apart, regardless of Messi’s exploits; off the pitch, the regeneration of the stands of a once great stadium has been put on hold due to the financial difficulties Barcelona finds itself in.

Without a trophy so far this season — the team finished five points behind Real Madrid in La Liga — the Champions League offers Barcelona one final chance of silverware.

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On Saturday, it welcomes a rejuvenated Napoli to the Camp Nou for their round of 16 second leg, with the scores delicately poised after the 1-1 draw in Naples. Defeat would undoubtedly be a disaster and would present Barcelona with its first trophy-less season since 2007-08.

“We’ll see what happens, but I see a black future,” Catalunya Radio journalist Ernest Macià Ballus tells CNN.

At the turn of the decade, Barcelona was, in many ways, the model for any elite European club; a young visionary coach with a clear philosophy, a revered and highly productive youth academy and a clear transfer strategy.

Pep Guardiola’s promotion to head coach from the Barcelona B team in 2008 signalled the start of the most successful era in the club’s history.

With a core of graduates from the club’s academy, La Masia, Barcelona won 14 trophies during Guardiola’s four seasons in charge, including an unprecedented treble for a Spanish club.

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Fast forward eight years and only Messi, Sergio Busquets and Gerard Pique of the acclaimed La Masia alumni remain on the pitch, while the rest of the club appears in disarray. So, what has gone wrong at the Camp Nou?

Financial troubles

Barcelona’s ‘Espai Barça’ project, the ambitious renovation plan for the Camp Nou and surrounding area, was due to be completed by next year. Instead, it hasn’t even begun.

The estimated cost of the project is reported to be between $600 million and $800 million, money the club has struggled to raise.

Some of the blame can be apportioned to the coronavirus outbreak, but this is a project which the club has wanted to undertake for more than a decade.

The enforced lockdown due to the pandemic brought football to a halt around the world and slashed clubs’ income through ticket sales and television rights deals.

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Barcelona was particularly badly affected. The club’s wage bill is the highest in world football, according to a report published by UEFA earlier this year.

The Global Sports Salaries Survey by Sporting Intelligence puts Barcelona’s average annual salary spend per player at $12.3m for the 2019-20 season.

According to Barcelona’s last accounts, up to June 30, 2019, the wage bill for all their sporting teams, which includes basketball, handball among other teams, was 671 million euros ($792 million), with the vast majority going to the football club’s first team.

That year, the club’s turnover was 990 million euros ($1.16bn) and projected to increase the following year.

However, with money no longer coming in through gate receipts, TV deals and museum tickets, first team players and staff had their wages reduced by 70% in March to “minimize the economic impact” caused by coronavirus.

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Barcelona, of course, was not the only major European club to enforce a salary reduction, but it laid bare the precariousness of its current finances.

Big-money transfers

These problems have been exacerbated by the club’s move away from promoting La Masia players to the first team — an academy which has developed a host of stars, notably Messi, Guardiola, Andres Iniesta and Xavi — instead choosing to spend vast transfer fees and wages on already established stars.

Barcelona has reportedly spent more than $1 billion on transfer fees since the 2013/14 season.

The world record $263 million sale of Neymar to Paris Saint-Germain in 2017 temporarily plugged the financial gap, but the club immediately spent the money trying to find an adequate replacement for the Brazilian, often paying big on desired players.

Around $170 million was paid to Liverpool for Brazilian forward Philippe Coutinho, whose unproductive time at the club came to end with a loan move to Bayern Munich after less than two years in Barcelona.

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Another $120 million — plus $45 million in potential add-ons — was reportedly spent on the largely unproven Ouseman Dembele from Borussia Dortmund.

The Frenchman has shown flashes of his potential, but his three years at Barcelona so far have been defined by several long-term injuries that have limited him to just 74 appearances.

Most recently came the $135 million signing of Antoine Griezmann, who has so far failed to replicate anything close to the form he showed while at La Liga rival Atletico Madrid.

Such are its current financial woes, the club sold promising young midfielder Arthur to Juventus in exchange for the 30-year-old Miralem Pjanic.

These signings, and many others, have not only negatively impacted the team, the results and its finances, but also the very fiber of what it means to be FC Barcelona.

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“There have been problems with how they basically run the club, as far as money is concerned,” Macià says.

 “Bringing in players with high prices, players that didn’t work. They did buy some good players, like Frenkie de Jong, for example, a young and talented player, but … he needs to adapt to our philosophy.

“But if there’s not anyone who ignites this philosophy, it’s difficult. If there’s not a leader that tells the new players how we play at Barcelona, it’s difficult because the only priority is to win the next game. And if this is the only priority, you will never win that title.

“[We cannot] play like an ordinary team. Other teams are better at playing ordinary [football], like Milan or Inter, they do not need to play beautifully and with a style, they have good players and they are good at it.

 “While in Barcelona, they need to do something more than just win titles … and it still won’t be enough.

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“So Barcelona will need a reconstruction and, I’m afraid, they wouldn’t have enough money to do it.

“They wanted to refurbish the Camp Nou and the project has been stopped. They also had to build a new [arena] for basketball and other professional sports at the club, and this project has been stopped as well. There’s no money for these projects.”

‘Soul of the club lost’

Back in 2012, the season after Guardiola left the club, his replacement Tito Vilanova famously fielded an entire 11 of players who had graduated from La Masia.

Barcelona beat Levante 4-0 that day and it was an occasion heralded around Europe, as the academy was put on a pedestal as the gold standard for other clubs to aspire to.

Messi, Busquets, Pique and Jordi Alba still remain from that side, but La Masia’s production line has since slowed. In the subsequent eight years, only Sergi Roberto has graduated to become a first-team regular.

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“From 2004-2010 there was a policy for years of bring players from La Masia to the first team,” Macià says.

“When Guardiola was the coach, everything was easier for these young, talented players growing up in La Masia. But then Guardiola went and the coaches that came here were basically focused on trying to win and the current board didn’t force them to try and raise players born in La Masia, so the soul of the club has been progressively lost.

“It’s gone from ‘More than a Club,’ which is the motto that is still in the stands, to more of a simple club in which you can see a good football team, but one that is losing its identity.”

While the board’s decision to focus on big-money signings, instead of nurturing its own talent, could be the root cause, as Macià also noted, Barcelona is also no longer able to hold onto La Masia’s most promising stars.

Cesc Fabregas’ move to Arsenal in 2003 as a 16-year-old is perhaps the most famous example of this, but it’s a trend that has continued.

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Manchester City defender Eric Garcia, Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Xavi Simons and Manchester United-bound Marc Jurado are just three of La Masia’s most gifted youngsters to have left for pastures new.

Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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La Liga

Former Real Madrid manager and Brazil Coach, Carlo Ancelotti sentenced to prison

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A Spanish court on Wednesday handed Brazil coach Carlo Ancelotti a one-year prison sentence for failing to pay tax on his image rights revenues in 2014 when the Italian was Real Madrid manager, according to a statement.

Ancelotti, who managed Real Madrid from 2013 to 2015 and between 2021 and 2025, was cleared of a similar charge in 2015, as the court could not prove he had stayed long enough in Spain to incur tax liabilities, the court added. He moved to London after Real Madrid sacked him in May 2015.

Under Spanish law, any sentence under two years for a non-violent crime rarely requires a defendant without previous convictions to serve jail time.

The 66-year-old former Bayern Munich, AC Milan and Chelsea manager is the latest of several soccer celebrities to be investigated and convicted by the Spanish tax authority for alleged tax fraud.

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La Liga

Raphinha lauds kid with the golden feet Yamal after Barca secure title

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 LaLiga - Espanyol v FC Barcelona - RCDE Stadium, Cornella de Llobregat, Spain - May 15, 2025 FC Barcelona's Lamine Yamal celebrates scoring their first goal REUTERS/Albert Gea

Raphinha knew there was no reason to panic as Barcelona struggled to break down Espanyol on Thursday and said it was only a matter of time before the “golden feet” of Lamine Yamal steered them to a title-winning victory with a glorious goal.

Yamal, 17, took the ball on the right touchline and made a superb lateral run across the edge of the box before unleashing a curling strike between two defenders and into the top corner to break the deadlock early in the second half.

The stunning strike set Barca on course for a 2-0 win that secured the LaLiga title, with Real Madrid seven points back with only two games left to play.

“We didn’t have many clear chances but we have a kid in there who sometimes pulls something out of the golden feet he has and he gave us peace of mind to stay in the game more calmly,” Raphinha said.

“In January some people were saying we would fight to be third. We have confidence in ourselves. That’s the key. We trust in the work and in what we know we can do.”

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Raphinha has scored 18 league goals this season, including a brace in Saturday’s crucial 4-3 win over Real Madrid, and was quick to credit the trust shown in him by coach Hansi Flick.

The Brazilian tripled his goal tally from last season and also has the third-highest number of assists in the competition with nine, three less than leader Yamal.

“The most important thing was the confidence of the coach. Knowing at the start of the season that he was counting on me, a person who controls the team … it changes you in the end,” he said.

-Reuters

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Alonso poised to take over at Real Madrid

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Bayer Leverkusen v Borussia Dortmund - BayArena, Leverkusen, Germany - May 11, 2025 Bayer Leverkusen coach Xabi Alonso is seen before the match REUTERS/Thilo

Former Spain midfielder Xabi Alonso is set to become the next Real Madrid manager on a three-year deal when he leaves Bayer Leverkusen after this season, Spanish media reported on Monday.

Alonso, 43, is expected to replace current Real boss Carlo Ancelotti, who is being lined up for the vacant Brazil job ahead of the 2026 World Cup, soccer sources told Reuters.

Despite the Italian having a year remaining on his contract, Real’s underwhelming season and his desire to coach Brazil have led to a mutual agreement to part ways, the sources added.

Alonso, who said earlier this month that he was leaving Leverkusen after guiding them to the double last term, will join Real before the inaugural Club World Cup in the United States from June 14 to July 14, multiple media reports said.

Alonso, who also played for Liverpool and Bayern Munich, last season steered Leverkusen to their first Bundesliga title, ending the Bavarians’ 11-year domination, and they also won the German Cup and German Super Cup.

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Reports of Ancelotti’s likely departure come as no surprise after Real’s 4-3 defeat at Barcelona in a thrilling ‘El Clasico’ on Sunday left his side on the brink of a trophyless season.

The 65-year-old Italian, who returned for a second stint at Real in June 2021, led the Spanish giants to two Champions League and LaLiga doubles, the latest of which came last season.

He is the most successful manager in the club’s history with a total of 15 trophies and the first coach to claim titles in Europe’s top five leagues.

However, this season Real were knocked out of the Champions League in the quarter-finals by Arsenal and allowed Barca to fight back and win 3-2 in the Copa del Rey final.

Second-placed Real are seven points adrift of Barcelona, who could secure the league title on Wednesday without kicking a ball if Real fail to win at home to Mallorca.

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Regardless of Real’s result, a Barca victory in the city derby away to Espanyol on Thursday would clinch the title.

An official announcement regarding a managerial change is expected before Real’s last game of the season at home to Real Sociedad on May 25.

-Reuters

Schmuelgen/File Photo

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