“I think Bartomeu is the worst president in the history of FC Barcelona, but it is time to turn the page”. This is how Víctor Font, the first candidate for the presidency of the FC Barcelona, which has been rising for some time as one of the critical voices of the management of Josep Maria Bartomeu. He did not miss the opportunity to apply and surely with his words he summarized the feelings of many fans.
We are not going to enter into debates now on whether or not he is the worst president, although many in the networks have already done so and he is even compared to Joan Gaspart. Bartomeu took office in 2014 after the resignation of Sandro Rosell due to the Neymar case, and in 2015 he won the elections (called half a year earlier in the middle of another crisis) after the Triplet won by Luis Enrique with the MSN in front. The signings of Andoni Zubizarreta, whom he had fired on that so remembered Reyes afternoon, gave him that success and then several months of joys came, with a thrashing at the Bernabéu included.
Zidane’s Real Madrid
That management, which also had episodes such as dealing with the FIFA sanction, failed signings such as Arda Turan, André Gomes … coincided in time with the rebirth of a great Real Madrid. From the hand of Zinedine Zidane the whites achieved the next 3 editions of the Champions League, while the culés they failed miserably on the best European courses and barely made it past the quarterfinals. Leagues and King’s Cups were seen with worse eyes before the Orejonas of the eternal rival.
The squad worsened, and Neymar’s escape staged a well-known fracture with the dressing room. So the Catalan leader did not know how to use that money obtained with his departure well. The debacles of Rome and Anfield arrived, and the last butt he had, Ernesto Valverde, was knocked down last January in the Super Cup. The team was aging, it was not renewed well and last season ended with Bayern Munich’s win in Lisbon.
Messi wins the game
The rest are recent. Although he managed to retain Lionel Messi, the Argentine appears to have won the game. Before the March elections and with the prospect of a vote of no confidence that could lose and be the first president to be dismissed, he resigned this week.
A sad ending written for many months. If at Anfield a goal had entered, perhaps today we would talk about something else, and surely without a pandemic the stands could have put pressure so that the elections would have been advanced. But it has been so. Now the club must look forward.
