Sergio Busquets: “For the first time, I have thought more about myself than about others”

Would you say that coldness is one of your virtues? He does not express joy or sorrow.

It may seem cold, but it’s because I’m very analytical. My head is still buzzing… I am one of those who wants to control everything. Also because of the position I occupy in the field, permanently alert, I don’t have the touchline as a winger to know that nothing is going to happen on one side.-

Have you learned it at Barça?

No, no, no, I already had that as standard, but with Pep you perfect it more and he gives a lot of tactical talks.

Make as many times as a wild card in training position games….

What does that teach?

But you are just another street player.

That was before. When I debuted football it was different, more trickery or trickery was used more. Now everything is more controlled, with so much camera, the VAR, the mentality of the new generations…

Being on the street is not synonymous with trickery…

I know, I know, I take it as a compliment.

It makes you different, it is not a serial product of an academy.

They look like robots, as if everything had to be prepared and programmed, all trained as athletes, following a method.

So much uniformity… would you say that’s good or bad?

For the spectator, football is less fun, less showy, less engaging. Players who make a difference will always come out, but of course, fewer come out.

Was a stage closed on Sunday in the Barça with his farewell and Alba’s?

From the best team in history, from Pep’s sextet I think so, because I was the last one left. From the last good times, with Jordi and me, it is ending but it has not closed. Ter Stegen and Sergi Roberto remain.

If you are going to continue playing, why not at Barça?

For many things. I could start by saying that…

Why has he anticipated the play again?

I wanted to leave being important in the team, as captain, winning, being able to celebrate with the fans, titles…

It was the moment.

In the last three years, the situation has been quite bad in terms of sensations, without titles… I also wanted to live a new experience at a family level, above all, after 15 years here, without leaving home, at Barça , the club of my life and in which I dreamed of playing. I already have an age and I’m not going to play until I’m 40 like Andrés [Iniesta]. It was the perfect moment and you also have to make way for young people.

Did you hesitate to continue for a year so that Xavi could find a replacement for you?

I thought so, really because on a day-to-day basis the coach, the staff, my teammates, insisted on me a lot. But I looked for myself. For the first time I thought more about myself than about others. I think I have made the best decision.

In the end, for 15 years, he has known Barça in all its moods…

I have been with Barça since I was a child, I have been the son of a player who lived through things that few children can experience. I have gone to many fields to watch games, I have gone through grassroots football, I have made it to the first team, I have been captain, I am a member… Fifteen years at Barça gives you to know everything: teammates, presidents, managers, coaches, press, environment… You can count on the fingers of one hand the people who have lived through all this, who know the club so much and who know, more or less, how everything works or why it happens.

In other words, in the end he is another candidate for president, like Piqué.

No no. I can’t be everything.

But his idea is to return to Barça in two, three or four years.

Yes, yes, yes, I’ll try. I have the idea of ​​being a coach. But, even if it wasn’t, I think that the people who know the club so much, who feel it so much, have to be close to it. It is a heritage that cannot be lost. It will not be better and more careful.

Why do you want to be a coach? Why has he been a coach on the field for 15 years?

It catches my attention. It motivates me because of my way of being as a footballer, thinking about things all the time, how to turn it around, how to improve this, how to surprise, how to be high…

That is not all.

I often think about it as a coach, but then there is the most difficult part, which is managing the locker room with 24 people, each with their head, their things and their world. Not to mention knowing how to transmit and that they buy into that idea and are enthusiastic and believe in you.

Because in the end it is that, right? Manage people and not football ideas.

The difficult thing is the people, but when you want to control all the movements, for example, you have to stop players who feel it and are intelligent to make the decisions.

You are the synthesis of many coaches.

You learn from everyone. You have to adapt to the players according to the profile they have.

You talked about your father. Do you think his brilliant career will have paid off for him?

That a child does well always makes up for you. Those of us who have children are worth anything.

Have they ever talked about it?

No no no. We used to make jokes. When I started. He told me that he had a Champions League.

The first year the joke is over. He already won it.

I’m sure he’s proud of that legacy.

When you see your son, do you see yourself when you were with your father?

I have told my children to do what they want, to choose what they want and be happy. They will not have any pressure and more how I see football today. The eldest plays on a team and when I wasn’t going to see him my wife would give me a video of the game. Just listening to what slipped through what the parents said, you see normal that things happen later.