Busquets, again at the top

On his way to 34 years old, and almost two years after being badly affected by 2-8 in Lisbon, Sergio Busquets has once again inverted the curve of his performance and is once again accumulating praise from the world of football. It is not a flower of a day, not even the return of Xavi. Already last season, Busquets played at a high level with Koeman. He even distributed five assists in LaLiga, a figure that he had not reached in his entire career, adding new records to his game, such as those 20-meter chopped passes to Messi, who chopped from the false nine position. Later, and despite the fact that there were doubts about his performance, especially when he had to leave the National Team concentration with COVID, he played a European Championship to remember.

The arrival of Xavi, yes, has been a boost for the player from Badia, who joins a friendly relationship with his new coach that goes beyond the pitch. The two speak the same language, on and off the field. That strengthens ties and, above all, has filled the player with confidence, who benefits from the Terrassa coach’s way of understanding football. In the last Barça games, Busquets has gone from exhibition to exhibition and, although he gets fewer headlines because he doesn’t score goals, his weight in the team has been tremendous. At the Bernabéu, as in Naples or Istanbul, what Busquets wanted was played. And when the captain is able to have the game under his control, it is usually good news for Barcelona.

Busquets needed a break. Essential for Barça and the National Team, he has already played 3,900 minutes this season: 3,430 ‘at Barça and 470’ with the national team. The worst thing is that a demanding end of the year awaits him, with Barça still alive in two competitions and, at the end of the season, the League of Nations. Not only that. The World Cup awaits him at the end of the year. Hence that gesture by Luis Enrique with the only world champion he has left in the squad and the great reference in the locker room.

“Busi, busi; Busi, busi”! His teammates at Barça also yelled at him in the Bernabéu dressing room. A way of recognition for a player who seemed to have reached the end of his Barça journey in the summer of the pandemic, with that defeat against Bayern in Da Luz; and that he has recovered admirably with high-level football on the pitch, but also with a special commitment in the locker room. First, to accept a pay cut like the rest of the captains. And then, to sew a shed that had lost strength in recent years and that appears again as a family. Pedri says that he is an example in everything. There are no longer vedettes and fewer privileges. More a captain who monopolizes a barrage of well-deserved praise.