Take the ball. Pass the ball.
Take the ball. Pass the ball.
Take the ball. Pass the ball.
Take the ball. Pass the ball.
And I don't care where you're from.
I don't care.
If you tell me that you love football,
and you don't love Barcelona,
you have a problem.
If there's a game on TV,
any team in the world,
if Barcelona are playing,
I'd pick watching Barcelona all day long.
I'd say 2011 was the best brand
of football I've seen.
Bara re-established themselves
as the most admired team in Europe.
Not because we won
but because of the style in which we won.
There have been three special eras
in football history.
First, Cruyff's Ajax,
Sacchi's AC Milan,
a project that I continued.
And then came Guardiola,
and he created something beautiful.
To play against Barcelona at that time,
you just knew you had
a bigger chance to lose than to win.
That Barcelona was just, you know,
eating everything on the table.
It's one of the best ever performances
in a Champions League final
and to do it against
Manchester United was incredible.
We really enjoyed ourselves that day.
I mean, they were special.
They were as good as I've came up against
by quite some margin.
And they were just too good.
I remember Sir Alex saying
that he'd never lost like that before,
where he felt
that he couldn't do anything.
No one's given us a hiding like that,
so it's a great moment for them.
They deserve it because
they play the right way.
They stuck at it, they kept passing,
they kept passing.
They might have lost one or two,
but they kept passing it.
And all of a sudden,
they make that extra pass,
and the spaces are bigger,
it's harder to close down
and you lose your little bit of shape,
and that's when they take control.
As a performance, it was...
It was as good as I've seen.
What struck me about them really
was the patience of the wide men,
to stay so high and so wide
and keep making them runs,
and probably hardly ever getting the ball.
They both got the goal,
but just the patience
to stay in that position and hold us,
pin our fullbacks back, pin them back.
And then obviously
you've got Messi to drop back,
making it four v three.
Outnumbering the opponent
was the basis of our whole strategy.
Messi dropped into midfield to give us
that numerical advantage.
And he also scored goals,
which gave us an advantage
over every team we played.
I'll show you how we did it.
Here's the Manchester United defense.
They never closed down
the player in the hole.
They had two defensive midfielders,
a number ten, Rooney,
who didn't defend very much
and a striker.
For this goal, we were three against two.
Iniesta plays the ball
across the line to Messi
and Messi attacks the defense.
We started really well
but then they equalized
and that gave us a scare,
which is normal in a final.
But we managed to take control
and when we went 3-1 up,
we felt much more relaxed.
Pep gave us a team talk
in the Wembley dressing room.
I remember the room
was very dark, and he said,
"I told you that if you got me this far,
I'd win you the final,
"and I'm going to make sure you win it."
If Pep said to jump off the third tier
of Camp Nou, I'd jump.
There must be a good reason for it.
And that's what I loved about him.
He'd say things, and we'd realize
that his words were never just words,
and that convinces you
that what you're doing
is going to get results.
It's unreal
the way he used to tell us something,
"That's what we're going to do.
Do it. It will work."
And it will happen.
It really will happen, just like that.
That day was the crowning moment
of everything we'd achieved since 2008.
It was the crowning moment of our reign,
the reign of a team
adored by its supporters
and also by everyone who loves football.
For Bara to win the Champions League
in that style at Wembley,
was the perfect end
to a brutally draining season.
The rivalry between them and Madrid
had never been nastier.
And the relationship between Mourinho
and Guardiola was beyond tense.
Getting out of hand, some would say.
I think it escalated into something
more than just football.
I mean, I don't know whether there's
any rivalry between them personally,
but it looked that way.
Let's not forget where this comes from.
In 2010, Barcelona are on their way
to the Champions League final.
The Champions League final
is at Real Madrid's stadium.
I think we've all forgotten
how much of a trauma this was in Madrid.
They're terrified of this prospect.
What happens?
Mourinho happens.
Mourinho beats Barcelona
and celebrates it like mad.
And he's just passed his audition
for Real Madrid.
It was difficult for Mourinho at Madrid
because he probably arrives
when Barcelona are at their best.
And I doubt that any other manager
would have found a solution
for Madrid at the time.
I think that he arrived to Madrid,
to a really big club,
but he got frustrated after the 5-0,
because we beat them 5-0
at Camp Nou in his first year.
In the 5-0, they didn't have a hope.
That was the best game
I played in at Bara.
I think that he just had
a reflection and said,
"Listen, if we want to beat this team,
we cannot beat them playing football.
We have to beat them in
trying to find another way."
And they bring football
outside of the pitch,
like in every press conference,
in every interview,
trying to fight in every game.
I have absolutely no doubt
that Mourinho's role at Real Madrid
was to "knock Barcelona
off their fucking perch",
to use Ferguson's words.
Mourinho's not stupid.
Mourinho's a great competitor.
And you have to respect winners.
But when winners start losing
and feel powerless,
you better watch out
because it's bound to kick off.
Playing four Clsicos
in such a short period
brought the tension to boiling point.
It was tough because most of us
were Spain teammates
and the tensions
spilled out onto the pitch.
I found it all very tough indeed.
We all lost our heads a bit.
The games should have been
much more attractive,
much better to watch,
and without so much aggression,
but when you're competing
you get swept up in it,
and the tension
caused constant fighting on the pitch.
The day I remember
that they won the Cup in extra time
and Cristiano scored.
We were a much better team than them,
but they won,
and for us, it was like, "Whoa!"
They had that moment
where they made us doubt ourselves
because it was a really difficult moment.
We thought we were the better team
and created more,
but because of a marginal offside call,
we ended up losing the cup final.
And when you lose,
not only do you feel angry,
but also doubts start to creep in.
What we got on the pitch
was a game where it really
could have gone either way.
There's a goal from Pedro
ruled offside correctly,
but, as Guardiola pointed out,
very fine the margin,
which gave Mourinho the chance to say
Guardiola was complaining
about right decisions.
He wasn't. He was pointing out
the margins were so fine
that it could have gone the other way.
After what Pep said the other day,
we've entered into a new era.
There's now a new group of managers
with just one member, him,
a group that criticizes a referee
for getting decisions right.
It's something nobody's ever
seen or heard of before.
Mourinho was so provocative
that even people at Bara
wanted a reaction from Guardiola
because Mourinho was constantly
trying to pick a fight with Guardiola
and Bara in general.
That day at lunch we listened
to the Real Madrid manager
and I noticed something change in Pep.
I had a feeling that Pep
would do something uncharacteristic,
and I think others felt it too,
because after training
the director of football
came to the dressing room,
which never happens.
And I remember Zubizarreta said,
"Keep calm, Pep."
And Pep told him he'd stay calm
and wouldn't react.
But Pep was lying.
I was in the press conference that day,
and we're sitting in the press room,
and there's this moment
where everyone just goes,
"Did he really say that?
Bloody hell!"
Yes? Yes.
Pep Guardiola, good evening everyone.
Mr. Mourinho addressed me by first name,
so I'll do the same.
He called me Pep, so I'll call him Jos.
I don't know which camera
belongs to Mr. Jos,
probably all of them.
Tomorrow at 20.45,
our teams go head-to-head on the pitch,
but off the pitch, he's already won.
He's won all year long
and he probably always will.
I award him a Champions League trophy
for victories in the press room.
In this room, he's the fucking boss,
the fucking chief.
He knows it all and I don't even want
to try and compete with him.
I only want to remind him
we worked together for four years.
We were in the team hotel
watching that press conference.
He gave us one more incentive
to go out and give 100%.
When Guardiola returned,
we all started applauding him,
and he just said, "That's enough.
Time to focus on the match."
It really surprised us
because nothing like that
had ever happened, but...
a line had been crossed.
It was precisely the boost
we needed at that moment.
Clsicos are already extremely tense,
but this one was worse.
Doubts and fears
were creeping into my mind.
I'd known for over a month
that I needed surgery
but we hadn't told anyone.
It's impossible to keep secrets
in a dressing room.
Everything always gets leaked.
So I only told a couple
of my teammates the truth.
When you go to a match feeling confident,
everything is much easier,
but I had a voice in my head
telling me to be careful
and that my knee could collapse
at any moment.
I had a big bit of cartilage
floating about inside.
I could have easily collapsed
when one of their players
was running at me.
I was very nervous.
This was the moment
we'd either go down in history
or be remembered as a good side
but not one of the greats.
That's what was at stake
in the semi-finals against Madrid.
Even though you know
that you are a better team,
you always have that doubt,
and I remember Pep said to us,
"We are a much better team.
I will bring you to the final of
the Champions League."
And it was like this.
They were very well-organized,
so it wasn't easy
to create goal-scoring chances.
And then Leo picked up
the ball in midfield
and started that slalom run.
It's just natural ability.
That's why he's the best in the world.
Only Messi can do that.
That goal is just incredible.
Busi gives him the ball
and he skips past three or four,
and then he scores with his right foot.
It's one of the best goals
in football history.
My assist practically
put the goal on a plate for him.
No. The truth is...
we all know that the more
Leo is on the ball
the better it is for all of us.
You have a Madrid team
that's extremely defensive,
with Pepe in the middle of midfield.
A Madrid team that is very aggressive,
that is playing for nil-nil.
Mourinho's argument has always been
that until Pepe is sent off,
Madrid were succeeding in that.
We will never know if Messi
would have scored his two goals
without that sending off.
At that moment, the red card
made absolutely no difference.
Messi's unstoppable.
It's natural talent that's only given
to the chosen ones.
Maybe in 20 or 30 years,
there'll be another one,
but right now it's Messi.
I was in the room exactly a year later
when Pierluigi Collina,
in his refereeing tutorial
to the Spain squad,
uses that Pepe incident
to show them how the laws of the game
would be interpreted during Euro 2012.
And the instant it comes up on the screen,
the Spain squad is split right
down the middle again
with Madrid players and Bara players
drowning him out, shouting at each other
about whether it is or isn't
a red card offence.
I told Collina, "Show something else!
That's not a good example to show us!"
Yeah. Some of them still said
it wasn't a red card.
And that Pepe didn't touch him.
Incredible!
I'm telling you it was a red card.
They can say what they want.
Fans want to see their team play well.
They don't want a team
that constantly fouls
or defending with everyone
behind the ball.
But in the end, football always wins.
After the second leg at the Camp Nou,
we stayed on the pitch
celebrating for ten or 15 minutes,
and we still had to play
the Champions League final.
But with all due respect
to Manchester United,
our biggest test that year
was beating Madrid in the semi-final.
So they've beaten Real Madrid
in the semi-finals.
They then dismantle Manchester United
in the Champions League final.
And the instant outpouring of superlatives
from all-time greats of the game
all around the world,
I think, objectively marks this
as the high point
of European club football. Ever.
But the fact that ric Abidal
plays and wins,
having already just beaten cancer
turns this from a great sporting story
into a great human drama.
That day wasn't about lifting
the Champions League trophy,
we should have been lifting Abi.
That was the real triumph.
He was one of the great characters
in the dressing room
and everybody loved him.
Abidal!
I remember two or three days
after we heard about the cancer,
Abi came to see us.
And he was the one who cheered us up.
One of my teammates died
when I was at Sevilla,
and I thought,
"I can't let this happen again.
Not another one, please."
The first time I wasn't able to help,
but this time, I could.
And if there was a chance
to save his life,
my career was the last thing on my mind.
Dani came to see me and said,
"Look Abi, we have the same blood type.
I'm going to give you part of my liver."
Everyone saw Dani
in a different light after that.
It was a private matter,
which only came out
because Abi told people.
But I'd never have forgiven myself
if he'd died
and I'd done nothing to help.
I couldn't let that happen.
In the end, they found another solution,
but I don't regret making the offer.
Days after his operation,
he was back in the dressing room
and working out in the gym.
He wanted to be back
with the group as soon as possible.
We had no doubt he'd make a full recovery.
Did you think you had
a good chance of playing at Wembley?
No. I didn't even think
I had a ten percent chance.
We needed to play
the strongest side possible,
and the strongest team
had to include Puyol.
I wanted to play.
I always wanted to play,
but I was in a worse state than Abidal.
And the most important thing was winning.
The boss did something
he'd never done before,
He announced the starting line-up
in the dressing room at Wembley
just an hour before the game
in the Champions League Final.
I was shitting myself,
thinking, "Bloody hell! What's going on?"
I wasn't fully match fit,
but there was a fire inside me,
which gave me that extra drive.
And when you're on the pitch,
you're just thinking, "Let's do this."
The Abidal situation was
a huge emotional boost for all of us.
And he found strength
he didn't know he had
to play the way he did,
with the same composure as always.
Abidal was an example to everyone.
He showed
such strength and determination
and a will to overcome the cancer.
And I decided that if we won that night,
Abidal should be
the first to lift the cup.
It really is an incredible moment.
I've been lucky enough to lift it twice,
and it's a difficult feeling to describe.
It was Puyi's decision.
He'd had the disappointment
of not starting the game,
and he maybe didn't feel
like a key member of the team,
but despite that,
he decided Abidal should lift the cup.
He said to me, "It's got to be Abidal."
And I said, "Bloody hell, you're right.
Abi should lift it."
Without any doubt, that moment was...
the absolute highlight for us all.
To watch Abidal lift the trophy
was very special.
I was with Vctor Valds,
close to Abidal.
Watching Abidal lift the trophy
after the illness he'd been through,
it still gives me goosebumps.
I think it was the moment...
that showed the strength of our group.
We were much more than just teammates.
They say that Bara is more than a club.
At that moment, it was more than a club.
I think that the story of this club,
obviously, you cannot understand
if you don't know the figure of Cruyff.
Firstly as a player, he was one
of the best players in history.
I didn't watch him play,
but my dad always
said incredible things about him.
He always says, "Messi and then Cruyff."
When we were kids of ten or 11,
Cruyff signed for Bara
and we copied his hairstyle,
the way he ran and played football.
He inspired a revolution in 1973/74.
He comes here with the advantage
of having a good reputation as a player.
He has a philosophy
which is contrary to many.
He would prefer to fail with his ideas
than to succeed
with the ideas of someone else.
Players go for these kind of things,
for this kind of charisma.
I played with him here for five years
and when we took over the team,
we wanted to play
a different brand of football.
And it caused shock waves
around the world.
Everyone played with a 4-4-2 formation,
and we played with three defenders,
four midfielders and three in attack.
People would say,
"They've only got three defenders!"
It was a 3-4-3.
They'd say, "It's madness.
We'll concede loads of goals!"
But Johan preferred
winning 6-5 to winning 1-0.
I was really lucky because
I was six, seven, eight years old.
I watched the first Copa de Europa,
European Championships.
We were a really good team,
always playing really well,
but we'd never won nothing important.
But when he arrived,
he changed this mentality,
and we started to win important things
and important titles.
Cruyff is the most influential person
in the entire history of FC Barcelona.
Our style of play
is the most important thing.
Then come the players.
But what really draws you in
and what sets the club apart
is that Bara play
a unique brand of football.
It all started a very long time
ago during Cruyff's spell at the club.
Since then we've always played
the same way,
holding onto possession
and passing in triangles,
pressing the moment we lose the ball,
staying close together so we can
recover possession and then keep it.
Over time you realize,
that it's because of Cruyff's influence
that by the age of 21,
it felt normal to come off my line
and play further up the pitch,
outside the penalty area.
You come to realize that
all of us, me, Xavi, Iniesta...
We've all grown up adopting
Johan's philosophy.
You know, it's an immense honor, or pride,
to see that this is still going this way
and my father is mentioned
like the architect.
I think it's a process that began
in the 1970s with Laureano Ruiz.
I experienced that here as a player.
I was then a coach here
when the second big change took place
when Johan Cruyff arrived as manager.
He changed our mentality.
He turned us into winners
and taught us to be confident,
to want the ball and be creative,
and to enjoy ourselves.
And our third big change was with Pep,
who took it to another level.
Cruyff's arrival was key
because he imposed his ideas.
His advantage was that the players
already understood this style
because they'd worked under me.
I invented the Rondo.
The ideal Rondo is four against two.
You need to move constantly to find space.
The player with the ball
must have the option
of a pass to his right,
another to this left,
and another through the middle,
which I call the pass down the street.
So in a match that becomes
a sideways pass to feet or a through ball.
So it's a very important
tactical exercise.
Barcelona always train in tight spaces.
If the ball doesn't stay by your foot,
it's gone, in training.
That's why, after, when you drop
those guys on the big field,
they play as if they were in tight places.
If you pass, the player marking
you doesn't have time to catch you.
When he gets to you, it's always too late.
That's how you take control.
The ball is fired at you
from every direction.
And the light shows you
where to pass the ball.
So if the light comes on over there,
I have to be in the right position.
Left foot control, right foot pass.
As few touches as possible.
It's the role of a midfielder.
You're being marked and pressed.
You have to get your head up
and find the solution.
I learned all of that
from the age of 11 or 12
because I had fantastic coaches at Bara
like Joan Vil and Albert Benaiges.
My son plays for the youth team,
and you get to realize as a parent,
as well,
what the club teaches.
It's not only about how they play
and how successful that you can be.
It's how you conduct yourself,
how to be a Bara player,
how to live like a Bara player,
how to respect what it means.
Having well brought up, polite kids,
with good values...
makes everything much easier.
Just look at the squad
we've got at the moment.
They're all exceptional people.
We were lucky to have a generation
of players who came from La Masia,
like Xavi, Iniesta, Piqu, Puyol,
Valds, Pedro, Leo, Busquets.
They all achieved huge success
in the first team.
Tell me a team, apart maybe from Ajax,
that dominated world football
having that amount of youngsters
from the academy in their team.
There's a reason
why youth players at Barcelona
are the ones who best adjust
to the first team at Barcelona.
It's not a coincidence.
It's not because they work
with special machines
that no other club has.
It has to do with the way
they're brought up,
the values, their football values.
What is the real essence of our football?
Is it the result or is it how we play?
It's how we play.
And then, if you do that good,
the results will come.
We came here to play football.
People realized that we were different
and that we had talent.
We were given the chance
to develop from junior level
through to the first team.
It's a different way
of understanding football,
which gives you a better
chance of success.
When I joined Barcelona,
the media asked me
which player had surprised me most
and I said, Andrs Iniesta,
which surprised them
because they all wanted me
to say Messi or Ronaldinho.
But the player who makes difficult
things look easy is Andrs.
I'd want Andrs and Xavi...
in my team until the day they retire.
Bara's style of football is different
to any team in the world.
At Bara, there is a very specific way
you have to play.
You can't just boot the ball clear.
Defenders have to control the ball,
dribble and make the right pass.
It's not easy.
In the Premier League or at Real Madrid,
you clear the ball.
And that isn't a problem
at most other clubs.
But at Bara that's not enough.
You have to do a lot more.
It's a unique philosophy.
And that's why it's so difficult
for new players
to adapt to our style of play.
It might look easy but it's something
we've been practicing for years.
Most of us have been playing
this way since we were kids.
Playing for Bara isn't easy.
You see all these players
that are here for a long time.
They come through the youth system
and walk into the first team,
and it's as if they've been there
for many, many years.
Coming here wasn't so easy
because there are certain elements
of the game
that you haven't been taught.
You see players...
I could tell you a few names
but I'm not allowed.
But world-class, spectacular footballers,
who were completely lost.
They ended up in hysterics.
It was more the style of play
that I had to adapt to.
Staying on the line to make sure
that you can free Andrs,
make the run in behind,
knowing that nine times
or eight times out of ten,
you will not get that ball.
But if you don't make the run,
Andrs doesn't get the ball.
My first move when Abidal had the ball
and he's about to control it,
I always have to ask for the ball
in behind.
Every single time. It's a dummy run.
Now Andrs gets the ball,
Sam now makes a run for Andrs,
so Andrs can play him there,
Andrs can play me as I come back
from an offside position,
Or, if not, third choice,
Andrs skills you by his dribble.
You have a guy dropping, a guy running
and a guy with the ball
running at you, so,
by the time you stop
to realize what's happening,
you're already in trouble.
Some guys managed to get it in the end
like Thierry Henry and Abidal,
who both struggled at the start.
But some other really talented players
just didn't make it.
I missed my chance.
I was full of this fire,
of this desire to, you know, to play
and sometimes it was like...
I mean, I just wanted to
immediately show what I can.
And sometimes it was against me.
Bara is a hard team to play for,
particularly at center-back.
If you make a couple of early mistakes,
the fans get on your back,
and the pressure really builds.
But Chygrynskiy's qualities
were perfect for Bara.
To turn the crowd around is not easy,
especially at Barcelona.
I think it was Xavi who said,
"This is a very special place.
I've played here for many years,
but believe me,
if I play one or two games not good,
these people can destroy me."
I got it as a joke
but then I felt that it...
That it was not.
Despite being a home-grown player,
I've suffered things
that crossed the line.
-In 2003, I was the "Cancer of Bara."
In 2014, I was "old and good for nothing."
It's a roller coaster.
Bara is the most difficult club
in the world.
No doubt about it.
Imagine for a new signing.
It must be twice as difficult.
I felt this difference,
that I needed to learn
this language of football,
how to create space, how to defend,
and all the things that the players
were already playing.
We played a game against Osasuna
and Osasuna were not defending well
that area.
The guy there was not tucking in well.
So that day Chygrynskiy played
because he had a great left foot.
He could ping the ball well
with his left and right foot.
But an amazing left foot.
We were going to always play
in the center back
that was going to play across for Xavi.
Whenever we were moving,
Xavi stayed in that zone.
So that was the exit.
But what was funny that day
is that Chygrynskiy twice
played the ball long for Zlatan.
And it was on.
Zlatan nearly went one v one
with the keeper.
Pep took him off at half-time...
...because he didn't respect the pattern.
That's the way he studied that team
and that's the way he asked us to play.
The vocabulary of Guardiola or my father
is building up from behind,
possession,
the speed of the ball is more important
than the speed of the legs,
always play attractive football
to keep your fans happy.
I mean, there are so many similarities.
When you play for Barcelona
and especially after Guardiola came,
that's where you really learn
how to play the Barcelona way.
It's 11, not just the strikers
or not just the midfielders.
The 11 players have to participate
to create the chance.
Basically, what we want to do
is try to put the ball to the strikers
with a really good pass,
so that they can have one on one.
But obviously if you pass them a long ball
that's not really easy to control,
the striker will not do his job.
It's all about starting from the back,
to the strikers.
Pep took risks all over the pitch.
I think he made two great
innovations as our coach,
One was pressing after losing the ball
and the other was playing out
from the back.
I remember my first conversation
with Guardiola as coach.
It was in his office at the Camp Nou.
He had a tactics board
with two small magnets
either side of the goal,
just outside of the box.
He said, "Do you know
which players these two are?"
I said, "Nope."
And he said,
"These are your center-backs."
I had no idea what he was talking about.
It sounded Chinese.
And he said, "When you've got the ball,
this is where I want them to be."
I thought he was crazy.
And then he said, "You'll pass to them,
and from there we'll build the play."
I still thought he was completely mad,
but given that I'm a bit crazy myself,
I felt in tune with him.
So I told him the defenders
would have to be brave
and want the ball.
And Pep said, "Don't worry, that's my job.
I'll make sure they want it."
That's how it started.
Both Pep and Tito
took this idea one step further.
They told us not to worry
because if we made a mistake,
they would take responsibility.
All they asked was that we play
the ball out from the back
because that was the way
Bara had to play football.
He would show us how he wanted us
to play the ball out from the back.
He said that by doing this, we'd score.
So why would I stop playing that way
if I made a mistake?
We both knew that it was risky.
But he would say,
"Don't worry if you make a mistake.
Just keep playing exactly the same way."
We believe it's about
much more than just winning.
The message isn't "win, win, win".
Winning is a result of how you play.
The philosophy
is the most important thing.
You know you've done something
when people just want to watch you play.
Not win.
When you talk about Barcelona,
you're talking about the way they play,
the beauty of the game.
You go home and you go like,
"You should watch the second goal...
and, by the way, they won."
There was a sign on the door
of the coaches' room, which said,
"If you're offering us a youth player
who's less than 1.8 meters tall,
turn around and go home."
It was Cruyff who changed that,
when he returned as manager.
He believed that talent was the key
and height was irrelevant.
From then on, players were judged
only on their quality.
Is he good or not?
Regardless of their height.
Look at Jordi, Xavi, Messi and Andrs.
On top of each other they barely reach
normal height. They're all tiny!
Small players have enormous advantages
over big players.
They can start, stop and turn quicker.
The best players are all small.
Messi has given a lot of people,
a lot of young football dreamers,
a whole new hope.
It's not about the 1 meter 80.
It's much more than that.
It's intelligence.
In the end,
if the brain is faster than the ball,
you dominate.
One of my friends worked
in the youth academy,
when Messi was 14 or 15.
I always asked about the kids,
which of them looked special,
who was likely to make it
and reach the first team.
He said to me,
"There's this kid from Argentina
and I've never seen anyone
with the talent he's got."
When Messi started training with us
at the age of 16,
we all realized he was special.
I had a big network of scouts
in South America.
One of them told me
there was a kid in Rosario.
He was only 12 years old
but he was unique.
Nowadays, clubs invest in youngsters,
but it didn't happen back then.
It wasn't easy, but Charly Rexach helped
and we decided to bring him over.
Nobody wanted to take a risk on me.
It was a big gamble to sign
such a small kid from abroad
and bring him to Barcelona.
It was Charly Rexach who made it happen.
He came to watch me play and told me
that Bara definitely wanted me.
It was thanks to him and the coaches
who wanted to sign me,
although there were some who didn't.
But mainly it's thanks to Charly
that I signed for Bara.
I've always said it was an honor
to have brought Messi to this club.
My small part in Messi's arrival
was that I kept nagging
until we signed him.
If you went to the board back then
and told them that we needed
to sign a 12-year-old kid,
their first reaction was,
"Let's talk again in eight years."
But I said, "No. We have to sign him.
He's very good,
and one day, he'll be incredible."
That was my success. I insisted on it.
Even back then, it was already obvious
that Messi was out of this world.
So I told Rexach
that I needed something in writing.
His parents had been here a month,
and I kept reassuring them,
but there was no official agreement.
We were at the Pompeia Tennis Club
on Montjuic,
and there were napkins on the table,
so Rexach took one and wrote,
"I, Carles Rexach,
advisor to the president,
confirm that Leo Messi has the qualities
to sign for FC Barcelona."
He signed it and then I signed it.
We still have the napkin
stored in the bank
because it's delicate
and it needs looking after.
By signing the napkin,
I wanted to show Messi's family
that I was committed to
signing him for FC Barcelona.
I think Barcelona and Messi just...
It was destined.
It just had to be this way.
He came to the best club
that he could have.
It was difficult at first.
I was very young and everything was new.
I'd left behind family members,
friends, my country.
It was tough to start with,
but I managed to settle in.
Most of us knew
that a phenomenon was coming.
But the Gamper tournament was the proof.
It was the first night,
of which there have been so many since,
when 99,000 lucky people at the Camp Nou
simply paid homage
to something more exciting, more uplifting
than they'd ever witnessed before.
I was there that night
and the effect was spine-tingling.
It was a very special day
and I loved every minute.
It was the Gamper tournament
and I was in the starting XI.
It was a huge moment for me
because after that game,
everything changed.
That's where it all started.
I remember telling Patrick Vieira
before that match
to be very careful
because he was up against a young kid
who would change history.
One day, it would seem like every player
who came before Messi, even me,
were playing a different sport.
It was incredible what this kid was doing
against the likes of Vieira,
a first team player at Juve.
He was drifting past big,
physical players.
Messi just did whatever he wanted.
And Capello asked
if he could take him on loan.
Capello's no fool!
Initially, I didn't know
anything about Messi.
Only that he was going to play.
I saw that he was just a young kid,
but when the game started,
he began doing incredible things.
Rijkaard was
the Barcelona coach back then.
It was the Gamper trophy,
a friendly match.
The referee wasn't that strict
and we could move about,
so I walked over to Rijkaard
and asked if I could take Messi on loan.
You weren't allowed as many
foreigners in your team back then.
I said, "You've already got
three foreign players.
There's no place for him".
But Rijkaard said that
they were already looking for a solution
and Messi would be a regular
in the team very soon.
It's just...
How do you describe it?
Basically everyone knew this guy is
going to be the best in the world.
And there was no doubt about it.
I knew about his goal scoring ability,
and fortunately, Guardiola
put him in that false nine position.
It meant that
alongside Eto'o and the other strikers,
he had more freedom in attack.
That tactical change
was a huge benefit to him.
It's very difficult to pick
Leo's best goal.
The one he scored against Getafe
comes to mind.
When you see what he produces
day in day out,
it's impossible to choose one goal.
They were just flashes of Maradona
against England.
And I knew at that time,
right in the moment that I've witnessed
something incredible here.
It's one of his great goals,
probably one of the greatest,
but if you get a video of his goals,
he's probably scored another 50 like it,
which makes him exceptional.
One of my favorites is the goal
he scored against Arsenal.
It was like watching someone
on the PlayStation.
He flicks it over Almunia
at the last second and then scores.
I love it because of that skill.
Any other player
would smash it into the net first time,
but he had the composure
to flick the ball up and then finish.
The best goal I've seen him score
was against Mlaga at home
because that defied logic what he did.
Diagonal ball,
controlled the ball on his chest,
he runs full speed.
The first player goes,
the second player's just behind him.
If he takes another step
that player will clear the ball.
OK, if you stop the ball
on your left foot here,
how do you go back with that same leg
to touch the ball in the air,
to make sure that guy doesn't touch it?
Then he almost fell.
He almost fell and smashed it
to first post, top corner.
That's not normal.
Regardless of the fact that he's Messi,
in training, he wants to win.
He'll get annoyed
if he doesn't get the ball
and angry if he's fouled.
And that tells you a lot
about a champion like him.
In training, if the boss doesn't call
a foul or whatever,
he used to go and ask,
"It's not a foul? OK."
He used to go and get the ball,
run past everyone, score.
Now you get the ball, you try to go,
he runs after you,
gets the ball back, scores,
until he gets in a normal state again
and he relaxes.
Next thing you know you're 3-1 down.
He's a player
who's different from the rest.
He's very talented
and earns lots of money,
but when you meet him
it's like he isn't a star at all.
I've known him for ten or 12 years
and he's not the most outgoing person
but he's just a normal, humble guy.
He's very quiet,
but when his feet do the talking,
he's unique.
He's an absolute winner.
He has the desire to always be
the best on the pitch,
and that's why he became the best player
in the history of this game.
I was lucky enough to play
against Pel and Cruyff.
I watched Maradona play.
They have all made a big difference
in this sport.
But nowadays there is no one
like Leo Messi.
He does things that other players
can't even think about doing.
He does the impossible, the incredible.
He moves at a different speed
to everyone else.
It's like the ball is glued to his foot
and he keeps showing it to you
and just when you think you can get it,
it's already too late.
It's difficult to talk about Leo
and put it into our words
because he's not on our planet.
In every game I'd be watching,
waiting to see what he would do
because he's the player
who wins you every game.
When he takes the ball,
something's going to happen.
He's capable of starting
the move and finishing it off, as well.
Normally, players can do one or the other,
But he's different.
He's better than you
with his right foot, left foot and head,
at defending and attacking.
He's faster,
better at dribbling and passing.
Goalkeeper?
Well, we haven't put him in goal yet.
But watch out if he tries that too!
The impact and importance of Cruyff
as a player
and then the Dream Team coach
at Bara, huge.
But Joan Laporta's devotion
to the Dutchman
meant that he stood for election
and once he won the presidency,
he ushered in that golden era of all-time
by handing the GPS to Cruyff,
about the football philosophy,
and the appointment of the right men
to implement it.
It's for those three things:
great player, brilliant coach,
and the greatest ever professor,
that Cruyff has become
the most important man
in the history of professional football.
I think it was... it was crucial,
the contribution of Cruyff.
It wasn't like a day-to-day office job,
but we knew that he was providing ideas
and support.
He advised us on all
of our football decisions.
Johan created and developed
a certain style of football,
and Rijkaard contributed his own
personality, ideas and experience.
People remember Pep's time in charge
because it was a very successful era,
but I'll never forget Frank's time
at the club,
which was also
a very successful few years.
During Madrid's Galctico era,
they were winning everything,
and it felt like we couldn't beat them.
But with Rijkaard, we put an end to that,
which for me personally
was a very proud moment.
Bara was already a huge brand,
but we were looking at the museum
and there was only one Champions League.
If you watch the final,
I don't think we deserved to lose.
After the births of my children,
that was the best night of my life.
I honestly thought it would
be my last game for Bara
because I'd had a really tough year.
It was thanks to Frank
that I played that day.
He was like a father to me.
And in the end,
we lifted the European Cup together.
After winning in Paris,
that magical point,
that turning point for the club,
the following season wasn't that good.
The leading players were not really
leading the group properly.
Maybe we had so much success so early
that maybe it was too early.
Slowly, but steadily,
we were going in the wrong direction.
The second season that I was here,
Rijkaard was still in charge.
I think it's one of the worst seasons
in the recent history of Barcelona,
where we came third.
We went backwards after winning in Paris
and winning the league.
We'd stopped competing.
we'd lost our fire, our hunger.
You could sense through the
season that it was the end of an era.
People wanted a change,
and I was part of the people
that they wanted out.
It was very difficult.
I've only been sent off twice:
Once because the referee made a mistake
and once at the Bernabu.
I felt angry and powerless.
They were running rings around us.
Never mind 4-1, we could have lost 7-1.
It was one of the worst nights
of my career,
and the same goes for Puyol
and everyone else.
It just wasn't good enough.
Not for the standards people set here.
Not good enough for the club.
And not good enough
if you look at the players that we had.
Something had to change.
Mourinho does come out
of this story as the bad guy,
but in 2008,
he was a perfectly legitimate candidate
to succeed the failing Frank Rijkaard.
He's a winner,
and it felt like a safer choice
because he was a big brand
and he'd recently coached Chelsea, etc.,
and he was on the market.
It was a long process,
there were many board members
who wanted Mourinho.
They argued that we needed a manager
who would get results quickly.
Given there were four or five directors
keen on Mourinho,
the vice president organized
a meeting with him and off he went.
INGLA:
By that time he was employing the 4-3-3,
he even prepared a PowerPoint
with some pitch positions of the players
and typical movements.
I'm sure he would have been successful.
Mourinho helped us a lot
when we were young players.
Van Gaal often sent him
to take Bara B training.
I was with the under-19s
and he'd coach us once a week.
It was the same style of football,
the Bara philosophy.
The rondo, possession,
holding onto the ball, positional play.
We worked on all of that with Mourinho.
You could understand that Mourinho felt
he should be in charge of making Bara
the greatest team in the world.
But by 2008,
Mourinho had changed radically.
It was about power, height,
athleticism, over technique.
When he went to Chelsea,
Mourinho's philosophy of the game changed.
It's a very different style
to the football we play at Bara.
We wanted to stay faithful
to Cruyff's philosophy.
The president and Johan were good friends,
and Laporta had complete
confidence in Johan's opinion.
Johan told him the man for the job
was training the youth team.
All he needed to do was promote him.
There's a lot of football players...
There were a lot of football players
that came to visit my father periodically.
My father loved that.
And I know Pep also loved that,
and I know that they were meeting a lot.
So when my father had,
what we could call a crazy idea
that the coach who was in Bara B
in the third division,
or the third level at the time, to say,
"Put him in the first team."
That's a big gamble.
I asked them if they
thought Pep was ready,
and Txiki Begiristain and Johan,
who saw him regularly, said he was.
Mourinho's agent called me and said,
"Are you going to appoint Mourinho or not?
Because if you're interested,
we need to talk."
And I said to him,
"No, Jorge. We've chosen Pep Guardiola."
So I told Pep that I wanted him
to be the next manager
if the season didn't end well.
We were having lunch and Pep,
half in jest, said to me,
"If you appoint me as coach
I'll win everything for you."
He honestly said that.
When I heard that Guardiola
would be our new manager,
I knew that everything would go well.
I hadn't worked with him as a coach
but we were teammates
and I knew what a perfectionist he was.
And I thought, this is going to be great.
In retrospect, it's remarkable,
but because of Euro 2008,
Guardiola's appointment had garnered
very little media coverage in Spain
until the day of his presentation
when he sits there,
lean, young, full head of hair,
the returning local hero and says,
"Everything changes."
Ronaldinho, out! Deco, out!
Eto'o, out!
Or, at best, third choice striker.
It was his statement of: "I'm in charge."
Just imagine what Samuel was like
when he heard that.
It was like an explosion.
Given the kind of player I was,
and considering
what I'd done for the club,
it would have been nice for Pep
to have called me with the news.
It's always better
to be straight with people.
It was a big shock to find out that way.
Tactically, he's the best in the world.
I've always said that.
He understands the game better
than anyone,
but I'll be even better
because I'll be up front with people.
Samuel took training seriously.
He trained as hard as he played.
Every manager loved Eto'o
but at training,
it was all or nothing with him
and he often caused problems.
I remember Rijkaard told me
we had to get rid of Samuel
because he grabbed one of the assistants
by the scruff of the neck
for giving him offside in training.
But that passion is also good.
I remember the pre-season training camp
in St Andrews.
We were all curious.
We'd sold Deco and Ronaldinho,
but I was keen to keep Eto'o,
and I told him that I'd try to keep him.
He was brilliant during that pre-season.
He worked harder
and ran more than anyone else.
In the pre-season games
he scored more than anyone.
So the captains went to see Pep...
I hope Pep doesn't get annoyed
I'm sharing this!
They told Pep that...
Eto'o would be a big help that season.
The guy they wanted to kick out
saved them.
Everyone talks about Messi these days,
but the one who made the difference
at Bara back then
wasn't Ronaldinho. It was Eto'o.
When things got difficult,
it was me they all looked to.
The team could have played
without a manager.
Guardiola's job was to reinstall
a desire to win,
and he achieved that with his team talks.
After his first team talk in St Andrews...
I knew that something big
was about to happen.
I'd never heard anyone convey
a message like that before.
At that moment,
everyone knew that things would go well.
Pep spoke to the players a lot.
Maybe his most famous team talk
was when he said,
"You can miss a penalty or mess up a pass.
"You're only human.
"But I'll never forgive you
if you don't give me 100%."
There are very few people
who communicate as well as he does.
He makes his players believe
in what they have to do.
And he convinces you that it will work.
From the first minute,
we all believed that a change was coming
and that we could achieve big things.
Pep's team talks were exactly
what I needed.
He was so passionate when he spoke.
I love a challenge.
I really like having
to work at something important.
So when they told me everything
was going to change at Bara,
that a new coach
and new players were arriving,
I decided that was where I wanted to be.
I joined up with the team
for pre-season
and I needed to talk to Guardiola.
I told him I'd had offers
to join other teams.
Ten seconds is what it took.
He told me he had three or four line-ups
in mind
and he couldn't imagine a single one
without me in it.
I told my brother, my agent
and everyone else
not to listen to any other offers.
It was a good start in pre-season
and the freshness about the team
and a lot of hard work and well-prepared,
but the season itself
didn't start that well.
I actually saw that game with my father,
here at home.
And they lost to Numancia.
And immediately the attacks,
"He's not prepared for this."
My father said,
"It's one of the best games in years!"
You know, come on! Give us a break!
It was not the best game.
Most of us, including me,
probably saw the game and said,
"Wow! This doesn't smell good."
My father never looked
at the end product of 90 minutes.
My father looked at the end product
of many years to come.
It was really a big moment for myself,
and it was probably an even bigger
moment for the team and for the club
because we needed that victory.
If we'd drawn that game,
the question marks would have started
flying around.
And once we found that click,
once we got that first victory,
there was no stopping us.
Guardiola taught us so much,
but he also explained why we did things.
Most of us already understood the reasons
because we'd spent years at Bara,
but the guys from other clubs
noticed a huge change
when Guardiola took over.
He was the coach who completely
changed my outlook.
When I arrived here he showed me
an entirely new way
of seeing, playing,
and thinking about football.
It always reminded me of the tactics
of a basketball team,
when they have the ball
and start signaling to each other
that they're going to try a certain play.
It was a bit like that.
It was fantastic.
I was never allowed to kick the ball long,
and from the very first minute
I was involved in the tactics.
So I had to really concentrate
all the time,
which meant every match
flew by really fast.
It was great because I'd been used to
a more direct style of football
and sometimes all I'd be thinking about
was how boring the games were.
I was in my element because Guardiola
and I shared the same philosophy.
I'd think, don't clear it, pass it,
and Guardiola would say exactly that.
But my football philosophy
isn't the same as Abidal's or Henry's
or Hleb's or Yaya Toure's.
They thought they were playing well,
and at other clubs they would have been.
Not at Bara.
It's a different kind of football.
Whoa, hang on! That's new.
Let me assess it. Let me see it.
Let me put my pride on the side, also.
Because that team had a lot of guys
that are all kings in their country.
To tell a guy that used to do
maybe stuff or whatever,
"No, stay there. Don't do that.
Make that run for him."
"What? What do you mean?
I can play football too!"
Pep's methods were different.
He was very hands-on, always intervening.
I remember Abidal and a few others
coming to me and saying,
"This guy's changing everything!"
I wasn't some 15-year-old kid.
If you treat me with respect,
I'll do the same in return,
but if not, why should I respect you?
So I said to Pep,
"You can't speak to me like that."
I went to the president and told him,
"If this continues, I'm off."
Abi came from Lyon,
where he had another way of playing.
Look at the Abidal that arrived,
and look at the Abidal three years after.
Crosses, putting the ball down
and passing it out.
Before he would have cleared it
straight away.
He wouldn't have been that composed
in the last third.
I think Pep's a football genius.
Sometimes he can be a bit controlling,
checking every last detail.
Some guys accept and respect that,
but there are others who say,
"You know where you can stick that."
I arrived here. I was 21.
And for me it was like love and hate
at the same time
because every minute of your life,
you have to be focused on football.
Twelve o'clock you have to go to bed
to sleep.
You have to eat well.
He wants to control you in every way.
"Don't go and watch the tennis,
don't stay under the sun,
don't go to the Formula 1,
don't go to this.
We're here on a mission."
He wanted to know everything.
What we ate, what we... Whatever!
He was so obsessed
that sometimes we had some arguments
between him and me.
Gerard is one of my best friends,
but I believe a manager
has to be like that.
During training,
we always had to give 100%,
but I'd done that my entire career.
In my opinion,
that's how football should be.
On the one hand, he was very demanding.
We all had to have lunch
at the training ground every day.
He controlled our weight, what we ate.
He completely revolutionized
the team's diet.
But on the other hand,
he gave us the night off before matches.
As a player, he always complained
that we spent too much time in hotels.
Initially, it seemed like
a strange decision
because we weren't used to it,
but I think it was one of the
best decisions he made.
For me where Pep was,
at times, ahead of the game...
The fact that, Champions League final,
in the hotel: family, kids, wives.
My brother was in my room, midnight.
Girlfriend, friends, we're just talking,
I made a cup of coffee, chilling.
You play for any other team,
"Don't do this, don't do that. No.
You have to concentrate."
We were lucky because Pep
had only recently retired
and he understood what the life
of a top footballer was like.
We'd go to every training session
and match with a spring in our step
because he was treating us well.
He understood us.
Listen, I say it
every single time to my friends.
When the ref was blowing the whistle,
I used to look at the time and say,
"Already?"
I didn't want the game to end.
I didn't want the game to end.
I was like, "I'm enjoying this."
We had a great teacher
and we were like sponges,
absorbing everything he taught us.
It makes no difference
how great the teacher is
if the students aren't capable
of understanding the message.
It all came together perfectly.
We won everything
because we were the best team,
but we also had the luck of champions.
There were some epic moments that season.
Like when winning the Cup
hinged on one crucial moment
when Pinto saved a penalty
against Mallorca.
We were losing 1-0,
and at the start of the second half
we conceded a penalty
and Martn Cceres was sent off.
So I thought I'd try
and unsettle the penalty taker.
I said, "Where are you going to put
the penalty?"
He didn't answer, so I said,
"I'm going to dive that way."
And I got lucky,
I went the right way and made the save.
It gave us a massive boost.
And then Leo came on.
He got fouled,
their defender was sent off,
and he scored a wonder-goal.
In La Liga, if we lost at the Bernabu,
they'd have cut the gap at the top.
But we won 6-2, which won us the league.
That was the key game.
They were four points behind us,
and if they beat us,
it was really tough to win the league.
But we played
one of the best games I've ever seen.
I really enjoyed it.
It was one of the best games ever.
When I die, I'll probably
be thinking about that night.
Puyol kissing the captain's armband
Messi scoring goals,
and Henry and Piqu. Oh, fantastic!
I obviously had to behave appropriately
but what a feeling!
It's weird because it's eight years ago.
I always watch it on television.
I've watched that goal a hundred times.
So I always remember this image.
I cannot remember what I felt.
Obviously,
it was like an unbelievable feeling
because it was a tremendous game.
But the 6-2 was extra special
because of our tactics.
That's when that fake nine
whole thing started.
Pep called me the day before the game
and told me to come down
to the training ground.
He was keen to discuss a new position.
He'd been watching videos
of games with Tito.
He said he wanted
to try something different.
The red glasses are Bara,
the others are Real Madrid.
Pep changed our system
and told Henry to play
between the right-back and center-back,
with Eto'o between
the center-back and left-back.
Guardiola had analyzed
the Madrid center-backs
and noticed they never came out
to press the number nine.
Thanks to the false nine,
we outnumbered them in midfield
when Messi dropped back.
We always had an extra man.
Pep said we'd outnumber them
throughout the entire game.
He was right.
We'd never played that way,
so Madrid hadn't studied
the possibility of us playing like that.
The center-backs
didn't know whether to mark me or not,
which meant I had lots of space
when I dropped back.
And as soon as the defenders came out
to close me down,
Eto'o and Henry made runs in behind.
That's what happened
for Henry's first goal.
It was a great performance.
And it worked out because on that goal
that Leo gave me
that's exactly what happened.
He was in a position where they didn't
know if they have to come and get him,
but I'm running in behind,
Sam was running on the other side,
and it worked out.
It wasn't so robotic
because we also improvised.
Robots would be like,
"I. Go. Here. Now. I. Go. There."
No. There was always room to be creative.
But 60% of our match strategy
was set in stone before kick-off.
The other 40% was down
to our improvisations.
In the Champions League,
if it hadn't been for Iniesta's goal,
we were out.
A 92nd-minute goal.
I was sat with the captain Carles Puyol,
who was suspended.
Bam, Chelsea go 1-0 up.
And Puyol said to me,
"Don't worry, it's fine.
We'll score at the end."
There I was watching it and I'm like,
"Oh, my gosh! We are gonna lose here."
The minutes kept ticking away,
and I didn't have the nerve to say,
"Look skipper, you were wrong!
This ain't gonna happen!"
I knew that if we could just hold on,
because we were under the cosh,
we'd definitely create one last chance.
And then little Andrs arrived
to save the day.
Every time I watch that goal,
it sparks so many emotions
because it was such
a significant moment for my club.
I'll never get tired of watching it.
It's because of moments like this
that we love football.
The only thing that beats it is sex.
That was the most important goal
in this whole story.
If we hadn't reached that final in Rome,
we probably wouldn't
still be talking about Pep's Bara.
I don't know how I played.
Iniesta... I don't know how he played.
We were on a mission.
We didn't want to let that one go.
We had a chance to win the treble.
We'd just gone
through the drama of Stamford Bridge.
When we won the Champions League
against Arsenal in Paris,
I wasn't picked to start.
So I had to play this time.
No matter the risk
or possible consequences.
I advised him not to shoot
powerfully from distance
because there was a big risk
he'd tear his muscle again.
Yaya played center back.
Sylvinho wasn't even playing
that season, he played.
Puyol played right back.
Some people were like,
"Hmm, people are missing.
Two guys are starting injured."
We knew we'd win the game,
because Pep told us we'd win.
Pep's a genius.
He'd tell us exactly
what we needed to do in order to win.
I hope he will never change
because he is, for me,
the future of the game.
Some matches looked impossible to win,
but after 20 minutes,
we'd have them wrapped up,
like the game
against Manchester United in Rome.
What manager would show you a video
five minutes before
a Champions League final?
Only him.
We don't know what was happening.
We go inside. There's a screen.
The boss asks us to stand
in front of the screen
and we are basically waiting.
Pep and Tito had made a spectacular video
featuring every single one of us.
With the music of Gladiator,
I think it was.
-We see the whole journey to the final.
Sad moments, good moments, struggles.
After Iniesta's goal at Stamford Bridge
I got a text message from Pep...
"I need your help to win
the Champions League."
The first feedback I received
was on the night before the game.
Pep gathered his technical staff
and showed them the video.
As soon as I saw it,
I honestly knew we'd win
the Champions League final.
It was so powerful.
It was... It was so powerful
that I would say, also,
it was too powerful.
As a motivational tool,
the video was a total disaster.
In the opening ten minutes,
if it wasn't for Vctor...
they'd have scored twice!
Er... the boss was very sentimental.
I went to the dressing room
and was told I couldn't go in.
"What?"
They said the boss
was preparing something.
When we finally got in,
we had no time to prepare
and it was sweltering hot.
Then he showed us a video
that had all of us in tears.
We went onto the pitch
and Andrea Bocelli was singing,
which almost set us off again.
Manchester United must have wondered
what was wrong with us.
We were in pieces.
After the video, he said,
"Guys, at the end of the game,
"I want people to say
that we can play football.
"Have a good game."
We went into the game believing
we had a great chance of winning.
The first, might've been ten,
15 minutes, we started really well.
Probably out of nowhere,
I've headed one down in midfield,
Iniesta's picked it up,
made a run, and all of a sudden,
boom, Eto'o and you're one down.
Maybe from that moment on they just...
That was what they needed.
Take a deep breath,
just get the ball and start passing it,
and gradually, sucking the life out of us.
You know when you play against someone
and you look in their eyes,
and it's over.
I think it was Wayne Rooney.
He was trying to get the ball
and we were keeping the ball,
and you could see the look.
He was defeated.
The quality they had, on the night,
was too good for us.
That was the one, for us,
that hurt the most.
It took me quite some time
to get over that.
We knew it would be historic
to win the treble in our first year
playing our brand of football,
with the players we had.
And after Leo made it 2-0,
we knew the trophy was ours.
It was exactly how I'd visualized it.
The ball looped over the goalkeeper
and in.
It was an unforgettable moment.
It was a statement of greatness
to begin your reign with a treble.
But the football reached its high point
at Wembley in 2011,
before which, Johan Cruyff said
that Guardiola should probably
walk away from the job
after three hugely intense years
and ten trophies lifted.
Everything had come at a cost.
A significant part of that cost
was that Pep was now getting on
far less well with his employers,
given that Joan Laporta had ended
his presidential reign,
and the new guy, Sandro Rosell,
had taken over.
In his final year,
Guardiola was frustrated and tired.
Given the burnout that we saw in him
in year four,
I'll bet you that Guardiola thinks
that Cruyff had it exactly right.
Pep had become very uptight.
He stressed about things
that hadn't bothered him before.
We played a pre-season game
at the Dallas Cowboys stadium,
and I overheard Guardiola
talking to Puyol and Piqu.
It was an unimportant pre-season friendly
but Guardiola raised his voice to them.
When I saw that, I said to Andrs Iniesta,
"He's leaving. This is his last year."
Even geniuses make mistakes
and Pep definitely got that wrong
because it felt like
we didn't matter to him anymore.
We didn't know what was going on with Pep,
which caused some uncertainty
within the group.
Pep usually renewed his contract
in February or March,
but February passed with no news.
Then March passed
and we still didn't know anything.
I really struggled to understand
what was happening.
And we had a few bust-ups about it.
That year, if Pep had told me
to jump from the Camp Nou stands,
I'd have sprinted down the steps.
I wouldn't have jumped!
When you work with the same
coaching staff for so long,
relationships change.
It's very difficult to maintain
the dynamic and to keep on winning.
We won the Copa del Rey Final
in his last game,
and it was the perfect end
to his time with us.
That day everyone got to see
the team he had built again.
After 30 minutes, we were leading 3-0
against the best Athletic Bilbao
side in years.
Signing off by winning
the Copa del Rey in that style
on his last night in charge
should have been the perfect send-off,
but he walked away
with a distinctly bittersweet feeling.
Mostly because he felt ill-treated
and under-appreciated.
My lasting memory of that cup final
is a sense of sadness.
It was the end of something wonderful,
so it's normal to feel sad.
But there was something else
that troubled me.
The attempts to demolish and destroy
everything we'd achieved.
I don't understand the motivation.
Things had gone well and we'd won!
Surely that's what you hold onto,
that's what you remember.
But no, they didn't care
about what we'd achieved.
All they did was focus on the negatives.
I think the club's got a problem.
Bara is a bit strange in that respect.
I've learned the most important thing
in life is to be grateful
to the people who make
a difference in your life.
After everything he'd done for the club,
Guardiola didn't get
the recognition he deserved.
Announcing his departure
at a press conference
and then immediately revealing
who would replace him
in front of the whole squad
and the board members...
I don't think it was the right way
to say goodbye to the boss.
On the advice of the director
of football, Andoni Zubizarreta
and after consulting the board,
I can announce that the next Bara coach
will be Tito Vilanova.
I think they should build a statue
of Pep at the Camp Nou.
In the president's box.
That's what I think anyway.
The best way to remember Guardiola's Bara
is to put on a DVD
and watch the matches we played
during his four seasons here as manager.
He invented a new way of playing.
He had a special group of players,
but he knew exactly what to do with them.
He followed the philosophy of his maestro,
the man who taught us all, Johan Cruyff.
It's a bit like the best cars.
Cruyff was the first great model,
the Mark 1
and Pep is the Mark 2.
But I think Xavi
will be in the same league
when he returns as coach.
When he comes back, he'll be the Mark 3.
In my father's mind,
he was always el listo de la clase,
the intelligent one of the class,
the clever guy.
The only problem will be that
when already now
everybody is pumping this up,
then the pressure's too high.
But if he follows his way,
little by little,
calm, like Pep did,
then you're ready for it.
And I hope Xavi one day will do that.
Bara's future needs to be in the hands
of someone with Xavi's talent and vision.
I've got no doubt that he'll be back
as a coach one day.
He deserves the chance
because of the type of player he was here.
He'll make an amazing manager.
As a player he saw the whole picture
from the pitch.
I'm sure from the side-lines,
he'll see it even clearer.
He'll be back one day.
I don't know when
but he wants to come back.
And he has the same
football philosophy as Pep.
The world is watching us
because they see we're different.
And they're right, we are.
But now we have a huge responsibility
to ensure that all of this
continues to grow.
The one thing that has never changed
in all my years here
is the way we play football.
Players come and go,
but the philosophy never changes.
We believe in this philosophy,
which is improved every year
and by each Bara manager.
But the day things start to go wrong,
and let's hope
that isn't for another 200 years,
but if it happens, we must never consider
changing our playing style.
Our unique philosophy
should never change. Never.
This documentary can't end
without asking you
about your memories of those four years.
When I think about that time it fills me
with nostalgia and happiness.
In my opinion, during those four years,
all the stars aligned
at the perfect moment.
The fundamental reason for the success
was the immense talent of those players.
It's them who have to perform.
I like to use golf as an example,
because as managers we're caddies.
We hand the club to the player,
but they get the ball on the green
and put it in the hole.
Everyone played their part
and everyone knew their role.
They all knew Messi was the best
and no one wanted to take his crown.
The home-grown players
had very important roles.
The foreign players played their part too.
It all unfolded naturally
without having to tell players,
"You have to do this
or you have to do that."
The roles within the group were shared out
and if anyone didn't like it, they left.
That was how we built something special
and kept it going for so long.
I think we provoked an emotional reaction.
When you remember titles,
really they're just numbers
and nothing more.
But there were a lot of people
who really loved watching us play.
We all remember the two
Champions League finals,
especially the second one.
For around 20-25 minutes,
from the 46th minute until our third,
we were tremendous.
That was a perfect illustration
of how we wanted them to play.
We were a young group of coaches
trying to convince
a team of unique players
to do something different
and it worked well for four years.
People become managers
for all kinds of different reasons.
My motivation is tactics.
That's why I became a coach,
to dissect the game and find solutions.
The basic concept,
which Johan Cruyff injected into our veins
many years ago,
was that doing the simple things well
gave you a 75% chance of winning.
And one of the simplest things
is passing the ball.
After that, things get more complicated.
But the pass is what unites the group.
The ball is moved around the pitch
from one player to another.
Everyone participates in the game plan
by making that pass.
That's what we worked on from day one.
I'm often asked if it was
the greatest team ever
or one of the greatest.
And it's a question that
doesn't have an answer.
It's like a new book that's published,
is it good or not?
Or a new film that premieres,
is it any good?
We'll know the answer in 25 years.
It depends if people
are still talking about us.
If after 25 years we're still
taking about a book, it's good.
If we're still watching a film
in 25 years time, it must be good.
The same will happen with our team.
But were we better than Sacchi's Milan
or Pel's Brazil, or Johan's Ajax?
Everyone will have their opinion,
which they'll defend passionately.
I would tell you
that my team was brilliant,
but Johan would argue
that his team was better.
And Arrigo Sacchi would say the same
about his Milan side.
And we'd all be in the right.
But if they remember us in 25 years time,
they won't talk about the titles we won,
they'll talk about how we played.
If they remember us,
it's because they enjoyed watching us.
But that's the big mystery.
Will we be remembered or not?