Laudrup: “The demand that is put on Ansu Fati scares me”

Although the times go by and generations, football and its environment, as its coach and teacher Johan Cruyff would say, should always have a bow by hand for say hello and listen ex-footballers like Michael Laudrup. At 57 years old, he still feels this game with the passion that he now expresses in his facet of Danish TV commentator and that it reaches the listener-spectator with the same clairvoyance as when he played and gave goal passes looking at the stretcher.

On eve of a Barcelona-Real Madrid, their five seasons at the Camp Nou (1989-94) with 15 Classics on his shoulders and his two courses at Real Madrid, where he jumped directly (1994-96), with four experiences in these matches of the maximum rivalry, they help him to understand the meaning from this duel that transcends the borders of Spanish football. As a Barça player, he won five, drew four and lost six. He scored two goals. In white he was left in a victory, a draw and two defeats. No goals. On the pitch, the best Danish footballer of all time ran the ball as it only runs to the chosen ones and in this telephone conversation, on the eve of a Barcelona-Real Madrid, ideas and words flow to him in a Spanish that he handles with ease.

-Michael, the last time we spoke you told me you were missing the fans. Now he feels happy because the public has returned to the stadiums.
-It is that football without people was not football. I remember the Champions League final in Lisbon and it was tremendous. Two teams down and not a fan in the stadium. A very strange feeling. It was hard for me to watch football from home without anyone in the stands. And also make the comments of the games from a small booth without atmosphere. My return was the final in Porto between Chelsea and City. On Tuesday I was at the Metropolitano at Atlético-Liverpool. That was something else.

I see him very involved in his role as a commentator and every time he moves further away from the benches …
-Obviously each year that passes, one is further away. It is the law of life, but I am very well as I am now and that is the most important thing. People ask me if I want to train again, if I don’t want to … I don’t know. Four years have passed. I’m fine with my family, my three grandchildren, my games as a commentator, the ones I watch at home. What I will never do is one day say officially that I am retiring, that I do not train anymore. I’m not going to stage it that way.

What would have to happen for him to train again? What project would they have to present?
-I’m not interested in thinking about it too much. Being a coach is a way of life. You are eleven months in a place and you only dedicate yourself to that. You don’t have time for anything else and now I don’t see that again. I’m enjoying…. When I watch matches in stadiums, it is true that there are things that I miss, but then you look at the coaches and see that they are suffering… The other day I was watching Simeone from above and that was suffering during a match.

Well, his former teammate and friend Koeman at Barcelona is not far behind …
-Ronald is another who also suffers. With the pressure that exists in the big clubs it is difficult not to suffer, but the truth is that it does not matter, there is pressure in all places, because if you are in a team from below that wants to avoid relegation, you suffer the same or more. I have seen Solskjaer, the Manchester United manager, on television, and the face he had in the first half of the game against Atalanta was one of total suffering. Then he won and will have two days to rest, but now Liverpool comes to him and as he loses he will be in the same.

Come on, football as you have understood it so far is over for you …
-All this must be taken into account. Being a top-level coach has nice things, but for your health it is not good. That is crystal clear. It shows in the people, in the face, in the expression that the technicians have. It is also true that there are some who suffer more than others, but I have been there for a few years and… you do not live within you. You are always turning things around, especially when you have problems and think about football 24 hours a day.

Koeman’s situation is being special. The reality is that there are times when it is sad from the outside for what is happening.
-It’s like that, I also see him suffer, but he knew when he entered what could happen to him at Barcelona. He was entering a difficult time. For all that was said about the economic problems, the change of presidency, with the issue of Leo Messi, if he stayed or not … He knew that he was getting into a Barcelona with problems, which was not the Barça of previous years.

Nor was it your Barça, Cruyff’s ‘dream-team’ …
-No, no … I see the numbers that appear in the press and if they are true, it is a club that will suffer in the next few years to go back to being what it was.

-What do you think is more negative, the economic situation or that Messi is no longer in the team?
-The numbers, sure. Leo Messi could have stayed with other numbers. Everyone loves Messi, of course. But all footballers like Di Stéfano, Pelé, Maradona and Messi himself have an expiration date. There comes a certain time when you can’t take it anymore because of age. it is the law of life. Messi has his years, he will be able to play two or three more, or whatever, at the highest level, but the numbers cannot be fixed. It is the future of the club. We are not talking about 100 million, we are talking about many more.

-In addition to being Koeman’s teammates at Barça, you, in your Italian experience (Lazio and Juventus), played against Ancelotti, who was first at Roma and then at Milan … You know the two coaches closely from the Classic …
-What do you mean by that, that I’m an old man now? Ha ha ha… I also played with Morten Olsen in the national team and he is 72 years old and I am 57 (Ancelotti is 62). Years go by for everyone… I came to Italian football in 1983, when I was 19 years old, and Ancelotti was in Roma. And then I also played against him, in Milan of the Dutch, Baresi, Donadoni, Maldini, Tassotti … The player Ancelotti was already a bit of the style as he is now as a coach. With calm, but with character. He had good technique, ambition. The feeling that he gives you as a person, without knowing him, is the same that he gave you as a footballer.

-You have to watch the Clásico on television because the rights to LaLiga are held by the other Danish television channel where your son works …
-That’s how it is. We divide the work. I, the Champions; him, the championships. This Sunday is a day to sit down at twelve in the morning and get up at twelve at night. Besides Barcelona-Real Madrid, there is a Liverpool-Manchester United, an Inter-Juventus, an Olympique de Marseille-PSG … Even in Denmark, we have a Brondby-Copenhagen, which is the most important match in our country. It seems that all the countries have agreed so that on October 24 all the big games will be played.

-And how do you think it will be Barcelona-Real Madrid? The two are not very there …
-The Classic is the same as always. Particular, unique, without prognosis … The two, within the problems they have had, Barça obviously more than Real Madrid, arrive with a point of hope after the last results of the Champions League and in the case of Barça also with the triumph against Valencia. He did not play badly and it was always Valencia. In addition, he has renewed Ansu Fati, who is a little hope for the present and especially for the future. Madrid has also had a bad time. It was not normal for him to lose to Espanyol, or to the Sheriff at the Bernabéu… It was a great disappointment, but he has erased it with the 0-5 to Shakhtar, against whom he had lost both games last year. They are not right, but they are there. Not everything is bad. Madrid is second tied with Atlético, which plays against Real Sociedad, which is first, and Barcelona is only two points away. The party in any case is not decisive.

-But come on, it doesn’t seem like it’s going to be a Classic like the ones from before …
-Nerd. The truth is that football cannot be compared with the Classics of the last 10-12 years. Those were different teams, better than they are now. On top they had Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. The party within the party. You always hoped to see something special. This time I have to say that my hopes of seeing a great game on a technical level … I don’t expect it. There will be intensity, struggle, delivery … All that, yes, but on a technical level I don’t expect much. And it hurts me to have to say this because we are used to something else, but this is how I hope …

-Also those of his time had a priori more chicha than this one that arrives …
-Also, of course… I just wanted to refer to Messi and Cristiano’s stage. What I do hope is that the two teams, sooner rather than later, will have two blocks as strong as before.

-In Madrid Benzema shines. There are moments in the games that the game interprets as the best Michael Laudrup …

-Noooo… Benzema is a forward. I’ve never wanted to compare my style of play with anyone, but Benzema is more of a scorer. At first he was disputed because they said he did not score too many goals, but he has always been important for all his teammates and since Cristiano has left he has taken on that responsibility. He is now one of the best strikers in Europe alongside Lewandowski. He is one of those who assure you a certain number of goals and his team always knows that they can trust him. Benzema participates more in the game, it’s true. He throws himself to the sides, goes down to receive, does one against one … He is having to do many more things than he would have to do because those who should have been his attackers, Hazard and Bale, have practically not been there. One very little and the other less. It is a pity. Everything has fallen on his back. Even too much. Many Cristiano goals in those years were due to Benzema and I think it has taken a long time to recognize the importance he has had in Madrid.

-Ansu Fati. Does it seem as much as it seems to us in Spain or is it that we miss Cristiano and Messi so much…?
-You can not say. It’s very young. It scares me a little that people expect so much of him. I understand how the world of football works, but the speed with which people want me to be the one to replace Messi within the club scares me. Obviously not at the football level because there it is difficult for him to get to Messi. Neither he nor others. It scares me that they already say that he has to be the most important player, that he has 10, that he has to take over … He is very young. He has had major injuries that have stopped him for a long time. You have to go with him a little more slowly. But the problem with Barcelona is that it has had so many negative things in recent times, that it is looking for a positive thing and this is Ansu Fati, it is very clear. Young, quality, technique, he can score goals … This anxiety of finding happiness again, or the level of before, is not good for the player or for Barcelona, ​​I think things are accelerating a bit and it scares me if I think how young he is.