Don’t be fooled. He is not a left winger. Neither fake nor authentic. Nor a traditional Barça interior. Not even an academic midfielder who protects and cares for the ball. There are so many Gavi locked up in that tiny body, far from the physical strengths exhibited by the Tchouameni, casemiro or similar types that swarm in that area, which is indecipherable to others.
He had to come all the way to Riyadh to merge with Pedri in an atomic football night that elevates him, now definitively, to a higher step. There is a before and after of the Spanish Super Cup, where a boy, he is 18 years old and curiously does not have a Twitter account because his best publicity is what he transmits on the field, he became the flag of Barça that overwhelmed Madrid with and without the ball. Like Gavi.
“Gavi is a boy who makes us all excited to see him compete like this, he puts a heart and soul that infects the team. He has innate leadership””
It is much more than meets the eye. And many good things can be seen in this player of infinite generosity who is contagious with a hyperactivity that makes him appear in any area of the field. still today carvajal, hours after the football ridicule to which he was subjected in Arabia, he continues to wonder who was that devilish teenager who looked like lightning. And Valverde? Too.
“He is a competitive animal,” Busquets proclaimed. “He has no roof, he is a boy who excites us all to see him compete like this, he puts a heart and a soul that infects the team. I already say it many times: ‘Don’t stop! Don’t stop!'”, he confessed Xavi, both amazed by what happened in the desert. Something never seen before. A boy dominating the final from start to finish.
“At that age, most of the players are with the youth team or in the subsidiary and he is here,” said the Barca captain. “He’s here giving an incredible level, with assists, goals… He has a bright future, with a long way to go to improve. He’s 18 years old. Let him learn and listen because it’s going to come in handy, I hope he marks an era,” he added. Busi’.
Gavi played 89 minutes. Or, perhaps, there were 89 Gavis. To begin with, it was Xavi’s ‘wow factor’ in the line-up. He laid him down on the left wing, generating an explosive partnership with Balde. Two irreverent young people (18 years old the midfielder; 19, the winger). And from there he signed a night so anthological that he will transcend over the years.
A multi-layered player
In Riyadh his garden remained forever. A meadow where he scored a goal (0-1) and gave away two (0-2 to Lewandowski and 0-3 to Pedri) to complete that perfect match. “He spreads his character to the team, he has an innate leadership capacity and at 18 years old! It comes from within, this courage and rage comes out of him. It’s spectacular!” Xavi acknowledged.
“Before the game I told Gavi to stay close to me. I knew we could do good things together.”
That was Gavi’s first layer in the final. One goal and two assists. All executed with maximum precision with the left leg. In the goal, the immense body of Courtois mocked and delicious both passes in the assists. He’s lefthanded? No, far from it, even if he seemed so in the final. That first layer, the most decisive, the most visible, hides, however, the other 88 Gavis.
He pampered the ball (he touched almost 90% accuracy in the pass), but he pampered the game even more without the ball. Then, a Gavi appeared in the catenaccio industrial factory, as if it were ‘Gavirini’. He won seven of the nine games on the pitch, no Madrid player could dribble him and, in addition, he received four fouls because there was no way to stop him. He, on the other hand, did not commit a single foul.
Although there is a layer, perhaps unknown. I fight the small midfielder (he measures 1.73 m) three aerial balls. And he won all three. In addition, he heeded the advice he received in Lewandowski’s Riad. “Before the game I told Gavi to stay close to me. I knew we could do good things together,” revealed the Pole, who cradled the boy who illuminates Barça.
