One more year of Sergio Busquets at Barça

When we enter a house or a building, we usually focus on the architecture, the decoration, the finings. We never think about what’s most important, the cement, the pillars, the structure. Without those essential elements there would not be a house.

I have always made that parallel with Sergio Busquets, who is the architect of Barça. I remember how Pep Costa, on the Barça first team tour in the United States in 2008, when Messi was away playing in the Olympics, warned me: “That kid will be the best of them all. Remember what I'm telling you.” He was referring to a boy we all didn't know, except that he was the son of Carlos Busquets. “This is a real ball player, one of those that no longer exists; he has the mischief of those who grow up on the street,” Costa pointed out to me. He was not wrong.

Sergio Busquets' football career has been extraordinary. He never had the prodigious clairvoyance of Xavi, nor the magical technique of Messi, nor the immense strength of Puyol, but Busquets has been unique in his role, the beacon and the guide of the team for fifteen years and without him, the best Barça of all time might not have been that. Together with Piqué he’s 'The last of the Mohicans' of that unrepeatable Barça side, even though some question whether he should stay or not because he is one of the best-paid footballers in the world. Bartomeu gave him the contract he deserved, because he was the best in the world in his position. No more no less.

To those who think otherwise, a reflection: what would it have cost Barça to sign a pivot of his level? A Pogba, a Verratti… 70, 80, 90 million euros? For his performance and transfer cost (zero), Busquets has been one of the great jewels in the Barça crown.

It is true that he has never been a face in the media, that he is not selling himself on social networks, that he flees from the glamor and luxury that surrounds his contemporaries, but there are also his merits: a world champion, European champion with Barça and the national team, third-most capped Spanish player, also the man with the third most games as a Barça player and most titles in his cabinet. We are seeing a legend that has rarely been given the justice he deserves.

He continues for one more year at Barça. That is great news. The day he is gone, we will feel his absence.