The New Era of FC Barcelona
Lionel Messi, the greatest footballer ever and the face of Barcelona for over 17 years has ended his time with Barcelona. Trophy, after trophy, after trophy and global recognition came with the Messi era, but with that era coming to a close, Barcelona look to the next chapter of their club’s legacy. After 17 years of having the best player in the world to rely on, there are some huge shoes to fill, so who and how will they do that? Although losing Messi sounds and seems like the end of the world, allow me to explain why I think as soon as next season, Barcelona can bounce back.
New Direction of Transfers
Barcelona dug their own grave which allowed them to lose Messi for free, even though he wanted to come back. Years of reckless spending trying to find Messi a new Neymar lead to some very costly transfer flops in spending $100 Million+ on players such as Ousmane Dembele, Phillipe Coutinho, and Antoine Griezmann. They have each had their own unique ways of flopping, but not a single one of them has produced even close to the billing. The constant dumping of money which didn’t turn out made a never-ending cycle. The goal was to get Messi a new Neymar, but it failed multiple times. Now that Messi’s gone, they can look elsewhere in a new direction.
Barcelona doesn’t need to spend $100 Million+ on players anymore because they don’t need top names to satisfy Messi. Instead of dumping 100 Million on the world’s hottest names, they can look elsewhere in their transfer business. They’ve shown a few examples of better transfer spending already. In this window, instead of signing an expensive Center Back with a big salary and a big name, they made a smarter move and paid a cheaper 22 Million for a young Center back to develop in Eric Garcia. Another example is instead of burning nearly 40 Million on a backup striker (like they did with Paco Alacacer), they signed Sergio Aguero for free. The awful financial business of Barcelona caught up to them and gave forced change. Barcelona will have to look to build from the ground up, the same way they did with the Xavi/Iniesta/Messi era.
Barcelona’s Next Stars
With Messi gone, it’s not just the talent that’s gone, it’s the leadership and identity. When you think of Barcelona, you can’t do that without thinking of Messi. Barcelona needs to find someone who can take the reign of being the face of Barcelona. They have plenty of options going forward, but Barcelona still has plenty of talent in the club right now. Even with Messi gone, Barca has 3 players that made my top 30 players of the 2020–2021 season in Antoine Griezmann, Memphis Depay, and Frenkie De Jong. They have players who can be the star of a team and it’s important they use them as such.
And although he isn’t a “new talent”, I think we will see a revitalization of Griezmann this season. Playing next to Lionel Messi always forces you to be the odd one out and Griezmann has struggled in that role. Griezmann is a player who thrives dropping deep to create and score with the ball, but that role doesn’t exist next to Messi. Griezmann isn’t a worse player than he was back at Atletico, he just isn’t used as much. So now with Messi gone, Griezmann can be the star of his own team and thrive as a number 1 like we see him do with the French national team. Griezmann and Depay are one of the most lethal duos in the entire world and now both can play as stars alongside some amazing support pieces.
Young Talent/La Masia
Most importantly, since Ronaldo Koeman has taken charge of Barcelona, the young talent has been able to thrive. Last season alone, Players 20 and under at Barcelona combined to make 66 starts and 130 appearances. La Masia's talent is what made Barcelona the unbeatable dynasty we saw run the world for years. Once they moved away from that, they fell apart. Going back to their routes of what built the core of the Pep Guardiola Tikki Taka squad, they can find success moving forward. Messi, Xavi, and Iniesta are once-in-a-generation players that we will never see again, but Barcelona has the talent to be the face of the new era and no one fills that role better than Pedri.
Pedri at age 17 was a full-time starter for Barcelona and dominated at the Euros making my Best XI of the tournament. At age 17, Pedri logged 4.3k minutes for both club and country showing he has the billing to not only compete with talent but physically. Pedri has all the signs to be a generational talent, and it’s more than just talk. Pedri started for one of the biggest teams in the world on a game-to-game basis and then was Spain who finished in the Semi Final’s best player. Pedri has displayed unprecedented minutes and talent for a kid who should still be in high school. Barcelona has a future star on their hand and developing him and around him will be key. La Masia brought them success and they need to look back to it to find that success again.
It feels wrong to talk about Barcelona’s young talent and not include Ansu Fati. Fati has only started 17 games in his short career, but he has already shown he can produce. This season before he had it cut short scored 4 goals in 7 games and started off being a full-time starter. Fati was the face of Barcelona’s jersey reveals this season and with a spot in the Starting XI being wide open, he seems the one destined to fill it. He and Pedri are two of the best young talents in the game sitting in Barcelona’s hand. They can be the faces of the new era.
Conclusion
Koeman started turning a new leaf at Barcelona and going back to their routes of developing young talent and now they need to take a full dive into a new era. With almost every bit of their two Champions League winning dynasties gone, Barcelona as we know it is gone. That being said, they look in a very solid position to move forward. Barcelona still looks like one of the best teams in the world with two of the best young talents in the game to move forward with. There should be no surprises if the Depay/Griezmann Barcelona team wins la Liga and makes some Champions League noise. Koeman has done wonders to make Barcelona go from garbage on the verge of collapse to a team where we can be optimistic about it. A New Era in Barcelona has begun.
