La Liga

On Lionel Messi's 33rd birthday, we've taken a look back through his career so far and picked out his best team-mates—with a twist.

This isn't just a list of the best 10 he's played with; it's a ranking of those he connected with on the pitch, those who formed formidable partnerships and great relationships once the white line was crossed.

David Villa, a player who enjoyed a wildly successful spell with Barcelona and combined with Messi brilliantly, just missed the top 10. That gives an indication of just how strong or entrenched the link must be to crack this list.

On the latest B/R Football Ranks podcast, the team rank the greatest moments of Leo Messi's career. Listen below and subscribe here. 

       

10. Javier Mascherano

Games together: 413 (Barcelona, 2010-18, Argentina 2005-18)

Only three players in history have clocked up more appearances alongside Messi than Mascherano, who linked up with him for both club and country. From 2010-18, no matter where he was in the world or what shirt he had on, Messi would be right there with him.

That's a luxury many may have dreamed of, but only Mascherano has experienced.

That club plus country element is a key reason as to why he features on this list. Their interactions on the pitch at Barcelona were limited due to the fact Mascherano played more centre-back than holding midfield, but on the international stage they combined to form the two most important reference points on the pitch: the midfield general and the attacking star.

Argentina's inexplicable failure to win an international trophy during Messi's career reflects poorly on many (players and managers alike), but Mascherano held up his end of the bargain, protecting a defence that has never felt strong and stabilising the middle so Messi's task at the other end wasn't insurmountable.

         

9. Jordi Alba

Games together: 290 (Barcelona, 2012-)

It's perhaps indicative of the team's current performance that the majority of this list is made up of ex-players, with Alba just one of two current colleagues featuring.

A left-back probably isn't where your mind immediately goes when considering the best connections Messi's had on the pitch, but a good number of Barcelona's most dangerous attacking moves involve these two nowadays—and what's interesting is it's often the exact same move or pattern.

Almost every single one of Alba's assists to Messi have been low balls into the box, the former understanding and anticipating the latter's movement and timing as well as any ever have. 

From 2012-16, we'd often see Alba overlap the left-winger, be fed the ball and then find Messi. From 2017 their connection has gotten even stronger, with Messi often finding Alba out wide then seeing the ball returned for a shot.

They're basically one-twos between themselves across an entire half of a pitch, against a full team.

It remains arguably Barca's most effective route to goal in 2020—outside of Messi taking matters solely into his own hands.

          

8. Ronaldinho

Games together: 80 (Barcelona, 2004-08)

More than 30 players have played more games with Messi than Ronaldinho did, whose 80 appearances alongside the Argentinian is the lowest on this list. But few can claim to have had the effect Ronaldinho did on Messi's growth and development.

The Argentinian's first senior goal was set up by Ronaldinho, who celebrated by hoisting the youngster on to his back and parading around. It was the beginning of a beautiful, symbiotic relationship on the pitch.

Messi, the book of Spanish football expert Guillem Balague, details how Ronaldinho welcomed the Argentina international into the Brazilian circle at Barca, taking on a kind of mentoring role off the pitch, while helping unlock the talent on it. Whatever he did worked a treat, as the world's best player soon blossomed, needing just a few years to reach the very top.

Ronaldinho was gone by 2008, shifted on by then-manager Pep Guardiola as he looked to remodel the team. What he left, in Messi, has served them well in his wake.

      

7. Xavi

Games together: 399 (Barcelona, 2004-15)

From 2008-2014, Barca's strongest midfield trio saw Xavi line up on the right, Andres Iniesta on the left and Sergio Busquets just behind them. They combined to dazzling effect, bringing to life the elements of "tiki-taka" so often associated with Guardiola's Barcelona and Spain's world-conquering side.

Xavi's link to Messi was naturally pretty strong, given the two would play on the same side of the pitch for seasons at a time and constantly interchange passes. When Dani Alves overlapped and Messi ducked inside, it was often Xavi who would find the No. 10 with a pass into a tight spot.

These were no regular passes; they'd be regarded by many as impossible, fired into incredibly tight areas, but Xavi's accuracy, technique and weight of pass allowed him to do it.

When Barca tried to keep the ball, effectively starving opponents of possession to lock them out of games, Xavi would orchestrate, and Messi would be a key a outlet for a one-two.

       

6. Neymar

Games together: 161 (Barcelona, 2013-17)

It's not a given that fellow illustrious technicians and mercurial dribblers mesh with Messi. We've seen plenty of examples over the years of top-tier players struggling to co-exist with him (Philippe Coutinho is a headline example, Antoine Griezmann a concern to keep an eye on), so there will have been a few nerves surrounding Neymar's integration into the team.

But the pair found their groove pretty quickly, helping each other by sharing the load up front and chipping in when the other didn't. When both were firing, teams were best off waving the white flag.

Their connection was at its best in the run to the 2015 Champions League win, with Messi playing right-wing and Neymar left. Barca built play up the right and found Messi, who would then play a pinpoint switch pass to Neymar on the other flank, most likely in a one-on-one with his marker.

Neymar blitzed teams that year, netting 39 goals and bagging 10 assists. Fittingly, a goal of this exact making occurred in the Champions League final against Juventus, cementing the connection in legend.

       

5. Pedro

Games together: 270 (Barcelona, 2008-15)

Due to the overwhelming star quality across Barcelona's squads through the years, Pedro was never regarded as a key man. But he does rank among the cleverest forwards Messi has ever played alongside, profiting greatly off the amount of space the No. 10 created as a byproduct of being so heavily attended to.

Pedro essentially resembled the Spanish version of Thomas Muller at Barca. A "raumdeuter," or "space investigator," he reacted and moved according to the space that opened as Messi weaved his magic. 

He converted these little movements and moments into just shy of 100 goals for Barca in all competitions. He also marked himself out as a man for the big stage, netting the opener in the 2011 Champions League final by pulling to the right as defenders zeroed in on Messi before receiving the Argentinian's clever pass and slotting home.

A remarkable opportunist and a cool two-footed finisher, Pedro did more for Barca than a legion of players with twice the talent because he understood how to use Messi's brilliance for his (and his team's) benefit.

       

4. Sergio Busquets

Games together: 515 (Barcelona, 2008-)

Busquets' sheer number of games played with Messi—a whopping 515—cements an automatic spot in this list, but it's the importance of their connection that necessitates such a high ranking.

There's a natural separation between Busquets and Messi on the pitch, a product of their divide in responsibilities. Despite the distance between them, it's long been the defensive midfielder's job to find the Argentinian as early and often as possible—and he's done so for more than a decade.

The best Barca sides Busquets and Messi have been part of—Pep's 2009 and 2011 variants—were famous for their tiki-taka approach and leaned heavily on Xavi and Iniesta, but Busquets' ability to thread passes through multiple lines, finding Messi from deeper positions, led to countless attacks and goals.

He utilises incredible disguise on his passes and movements, continually sending opposing defenders (and viewers' eyes) the wrong way, creating a lane to find Messi. And from there, Messi turns and wreaks havoc.

Even after all this time, more than a decade, that passing lane is continually open and often used. No one can stop it, and it remains an important tenet in the team's play.

           

3. Andres Iniesta

Games together: 489 (Barcelona, 2004-18)

Messi and Iniesta isn't the sort of iconic duo that typically springs to mind when you think about Barcelona's great partnerships of the past.

The latter's name is far more closely associated with Xavi, while Messi's goes with a litany of forwards before his midfield colleagues, but their almost unspoken-of connection on the pitch helped drive Barca to success.

They had a telepathic understanding that they maintained throughout various changes in position for both of them. Whether Messi was up top or on the right, whether Iniesta was in the centre or off the left, they found each other, played off each other and constructed for one another.

Of Barca's usual midfield three, Iniesta was the one who would break into the box more and push ahead of the ball. When doing so he'd enter Messi's territory, and the pair's link-up and interchanges were slick. One-touch passes, one-twos and through balls turned into goals.

It was automatic, beautiful and unstoppable.

       

2. Luis Suarez

Games together: 248 (Barcelona, 2014-)

We've detailed an illustrious list of forwards who have had a special bond with Messi on the pitch, but none have enjoyed themselves quite as much as Luis Suarez.

Things didn't actually start that smoothly; like with David Villa, there was a question over how the pair should be deployed together, with Suarez initially on the right-wing and Messi playing through the centre.

With everyone in agreement that a switch would work, Suarez took up the No. 9 position and never looked back. Operating in more natural roles, the two have combined for continual fireworks, scoring and assisting each other liberally.

In 2018, Suarez overtook Dani Alves' record of league assists to Messi, surpassing the figure of 26 against Valencia. That came after Messi (and Neymar) spent practically the entire 2015-16 campaign setting Suarez up for goals in order to win the Pichichi Trophy ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo. He scooped it, netting 40 in total.

Suarez's ability in tight spots, willingness to string slick moves together and dogged work rate have helped Messi in a variety of ways, and few have brought a smile to his face more often.

     

1. Dani Alves

Games together: 349 (Barcelona, 2008-2016)

Messi's connection with Alba is prominent, but he's on the opposite flank, so interactions are naturally limited to specific passages or moves that link the two.

His connection with Alves was different. Occupying the same side, or drifting wide towards him when playing centrally, the two combined countless times over a glorious eight-year period.

Alves was nominally Barcelona's right-back, but such was their dominance of territory and possession, he basically played as Barca's entire right side. He'd combine with Messi to build play up the right then hold the width as the No. 10 ducked inside, teasing balls and crosses in; one-twos in tight spaces were very common, as were Alves-to-Messi assists—there were 26 in La Liga alone.

There was another important element to their relationship too: Alves' incredible stamina. He'd often cover Messi's defensive responsibilities, burning up and down the flank all game, allowing the Argentinian to flit between sprinting and walking, saving up his juice for genius moments.

Barcelona haven't come close to the heights of 2009, 2011 and 2015 since that latter date, and there are myriad reasons for that, but Alves' slight decline and departure is among the key factors. Messi misses him, so Barca miss him.

           

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While world football is slowly returning to a state of normalcy, Barcelona star Lionel Messi pondered whether the coronavirus pandemic will leave long-term consequences.

"Football, like life in general, I think will never be the same," Messi said in an interview with Spanish paper El Pais (h/t Barcelona's official site). "The return to training, competitions and what was previously done in a normal way, now will have to be started again, but progressively. It will be a strange situation for us and for anyone who has to change their usual working dynamics."

The Bundesliga returned with matches in empty stadiums in mid-May, while the Premier League is slated to resume June 17. La Liga will be back June 11, with players going through full training for the first time Monday.

As Messi alluded to, though, the shadow of the pandemic will continue to loom.

Like other leagues, La Liga will close off matches to supporters to limit the spread of COVID-19. Fox Sports has piped in audio during its Bundesliga broadcasts to make up for the absence of crowd atmosphere, but watching players celebrate in front of empty stands remains jarring.

Dortmund celebrate their win in front of their iconic Yellow Wall — even when it's empty 😅

(via @btsportfootball) pic.twitter.com/YT3IcNsKVU

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) May 16, 2020

While a possibility, it's not a sure thing that the pandemic will have slowed enough to allow for fans during the 2020-21 season.

More than the situation's impact on his sport, Messi spoke about the damage it has caused to society as a whole.

"All of us that have experienced this situation will remember what happened in one way or another," he said, (h/t ESPN). "In my case, it's with a feeling of sorrow and frustration for those that have suffered the most due to the loss of loved ones."

According to the World Health Organization, Spain has 239,600 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, with 29,043 people dying from the disease.

The Spanish National Sports Council announced Friday that La Liga will officially resume play on June 11 amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to ESPN. 

Like most of the world's top soccer leagues, the La Liga season has been suspended since March due to COVID-19. By resuming, it will follow in the footsteps of the Bundesliga, which returned to action two weeks ago.

Per the Guardian's Sid Lowe, the Seville derby between Sevilla and Real Betis will be La Liga's first match back June 11.

According to ESPN's Alex Kirkland, the National Sports Council released the following statement: "The Spanish football federation [RFEF] and La Liga have agreed, as part of the Contact Group formed together with the National Sports Council [CSD], the format of the eleven remaining matchdays to complete La Liga Santander and La Liga SmartBank [the first and second divisions]."

Following Sevilla against Real Betis, several other Matchday 28 games will be played between June 12 and 15, including Real Madrid vs. Eibar and Real Mallorca vs. Barcelona.

The plan is for games to be played every day for more than a month in an effort to complete the 2019-20 season by July 19.

As is the case with the Bundesliga, all matches will be played without fans in attendance. Kirkland noted that the possibility of at least some fans attending matches early next season hasn't yet been ruled out, although it depends on the progression of the pandemic.

While the schedule for the remainder of the season will be compact, teams will get at least 72 hours to rest in between matches in an effort to lessen the likelihood of injuries.

Also, clubs will begin full training sessions on June 1, giving them 10 days to get prepared before the season officially resumes.

Barcelona are atop the table with 58 points through 27 matches. They are followed closely by Real Madrid with 56 points. Sevilla are much further back in third with 47 points.

Real Madrid entertained Atletico Madrid in the league in February at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium. Nothing could separate the teams in the two times they had already met during the season. Twice they finished normal time scoreless (Real Madrid defeated Atletico after a penalty shootout in the previous month's Spanish Super Cup final in Saudi Arabia).

At half-time in their battle at the Bernabeu, Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane called for Vinicius Junior from the bench as part of a double substitution to try to break the deadlock. Ten minutes after coming on, the young Brazilian collected a pass close to the touchline on the left wing. After looking up a couple of times, it seemed there wasn't an option on.

Then, with the slightest dip of his shoulder, he threw his marker and threaded a pass through to Ferland Mendy, who broke behind Atletico's defence. One short pass had immediately taken three defenders out of the game. Mendy crossed to Karim Benzema who tapped in at the back post to score the match-winner. There's something special, something different, about Vinicius Junior.

"At Real Madrid, they view him as a diamond in the rough," says Jaime Rodriguez, a journalist with El Mundo. "He's like a wild animal. He obviously doesn't have the finesse, the beautiful skills, the natural talent of a Messi or a Neymar, but he has other virtues—his speed, his physique, his cheekiness. He unsettles defences. For me, he's the best dribbler—along with Neymar—that there is in the world of football.

"Here's a guy who for a period last season—when he was only 18 years of age—carried the team on his back, for example at the Camp Nou [against Barcelona in the Copa del Rey]. At Real Madrid, they're clear he's a good bet for the future, and they won't let him escape. It's not only Real Madrid who believe in his potential. He's valued in many quarters. I can prove from different sources that last year PSG would only consider negotiating for Neymar if Vinicius was included as a makeweight. He's just missing a bit of steadiness in the box."

Scoring has been a problem for Vinicius. Since joining Real Madrid's first-team squad towards the start of last season—after his move from Brazil was fast-tracked—he's only scored four goals in 37 games. 

Zidane has not always been convinced by Vinicius Junior, although he was getting into his groove—which included scoring the opening goal against Barcelona in a 2-0 win at the Bernabeu in March—when the COVID-19 pandemic put a halt to Spanish football. Since Cristiano Ronaldo's departure from Real Madrid in the summer of 2018, Vinicius has been a saviour figure at the club.

"There's a refrain we use here in Spain: 'In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king,'" says Marco Ruiz, a journalist with Diario AS. "Vinicius stands out a lot in Real Madrid's squad for this quality. He's anarchic, but he's missing the killer touch. He has an alarming deficit when it comes to finishing. If he suddenly starts to score goals, he'll become a super player, but if he doesn't, he won't become a regular in Real Madrid's team."

Spanish football writer, Juanma Trueba, is unsure whether goalscoring is something that can be added to his armoury: "I have doubts about him. When he's in a scoring position, it's like there's a black out. He fluffs chances. It could be anxiety. When he scores, they're often flukes. 

"Goalscoring is not something you can learn. It's extremely rare that a footballer who doesn't score goals early in his career starts to score goals regularly later in his career. Aritz Aduriz [the 39-year-old Athletic Bilbao striker who retired last week] is a case, for example, but he's an exception to the rule.

"Vinicius is a player that has the favour of the Bernabeu. He excites fans. Every time he touches the ball you notice emotion welling up in the stadium. They know he's a player that creates danger. You can see he's being used as a symbol for hope. If things are going bad for the club, they have Vinicius, a young guy who can get the stadium on its feet. He's exuberant. He communicates with the terraces. It's why they love him.

"For his development, though, it would be good for him to go out on loan because when Real Madrid can call on a fully fit Eden Hazard again, there won't be much room for another player in that position on the left side of Real Madrid's attack. It would give him time to mature."

Luka Jovic is another attacking player who's seemingly at a crossroads at Real Madrid. He's only scored twice in 23 games since joining for a reported €60 million fee during the summer.

"He looks a little bit lost on the pitch," says Rodriguez, "but it's not only him—his team-mates don't look for him when they have the ball or they can't find him with a pass. He's like a Martian in Madrid's attack."

Jovic's standing at the club hit a new low in March when he was overlooked by Zidane for the Clasico matchday squad. The club's third-choice centre-forward, Mariano Diaz, got the nod over him, coming on as a substitute for Benzema in injury time (and scoring a minute after coming on).

"Jovic has been a huge disappointment," says Ruiz. "Last year, he had a really good season with Eintracht Frankfurt. He scored a lot [27 goals in 48 games], but he looks like a different player at Real Madrid. The goals have dried up. It's like the club just threw €60 million in the bin. 

"Real Madrid's problem is that it can't buy a good forward because it already has Benzema. Jovic is still only 22. He could be a great striker in the future, but he's not the centre-forward that Real Madrid need. He's not one of the top five strikers in the world. He's not even close."

Jovic's behaviour off the pitch hasn't helped. His indiscipline includes breaking the coronavirus lockdown in his native Serbia. He was caught celebrating his girlfriend's birthday on the streets of Belgrade, an indiscretion that prompted the country's president, Aleksandar Vucic, to threaten him with arrest.

There is, however, a thought—laid out in a front-page feature earlier in the week in Marca—that Jovic might benefit from a second chance. The report cited the slow start Benzema—who has also had his off-field problems—had to his career at the club. It wasn't until Benzema's third season that the Frenchman hit his stride. Trueba is sceptical, believing the comparison with Benzema doesn't stand up.

"Benzema ultimately triumphed at the club because he has a lot of quality," says Trueba. "We thought at the start that as well as having quality he was also a prolific goalscorer, but it wasn't the case. He doesn't have the ambition to be a goalscorer. He felt comfortable being a sidekick to Cristiano Ronaldo. Benzema also has the favour of the president, which facilitated his evolution. He was never questioned inside the club. It gave him confidence. He could benefit from the patience of the club's coaches.

"Sure, a player needs time before you can make a proper assessment, but in the case of Real Madrid when you see a player in the white jersey, and you see them on the pitch with the team, you know if they fit. Jovic is one of these footballers who doesn't fit at Real Madrid. He looks rigid. He lacks experience. He looks out of his depth. It was a mistake by Zidane—who pushed to get him signed. As well as not scoring, he's not connecting with madridismo [Real Madrid's fans]. People are disappointed with him. Not a single person will feel sadness if he leaves Real Madrid."

One of the 42 players on Real Madrid's books, and one of 14 on loan, who might well prosper at the club is the 21-year-old Norwegian playmaker Martin Odegaard. He's been a sensation this season at Real Sociedad, having joined the Basque club in the summer on a two-year loan deal (with the option to return to Real Madrid in the summer). He scored a winner against Mallorca in only his second game and has had a hand in 12 goals in 27 games for the club.

"Odegaard has some very good attributes," says Rodriguez. "It looks like he's got everything needed to triumph at Real Madrid if he continues his rate of progression. He can play as a No. 10, or in Luka Modric's position, closer to midfield. He can score goals. He's fast. He can dribble. He looks as if he'll succeed when he returns.

"At Real Madrid, they're thinking about bringing him back when the season finishes, but it's dependent on the departure of Modric. For Zidane, Modric is fundamental. He has a lot of respect for him. They're thinking Modric might leave this summer for Inter Milan, but it's up in the air.

"If there aren't departures this summer, it's better he stays on loan for one more year, especially after such a strange season. His season at Real Sociedad has gone well so far, but it's not finished yet. Let's see how he gets on in the last 11 games of the season. If he stays at the same level, and finishes one of the stars of La Liga, you couldn't discount Real Madrid incorporating him for next season's squad."

It hasn't been an easy road for Odegaard. He joined Real Madrid five years ago to huge fanfare. He came on as a substitute for Ronaldo in the final game of the 2014-15 season at the Bernabeu, making him the youngest league debutant in Real Madrid's history at 16 years and 157 days. Then things went awry. He spent a few years in the wilderness, including a difficult time with the team's reserves before turning a corner during two loan spells in the Netherlands with Heerenveen and Vitesse Arnhem, respectively.

The big question now relates to whether he can take the next step. Trueba thinks he's ready to come back to the Bernabeu this summer, but it's impossible to know whether he can thrive at Real Madrid until he's properly tested there. Ruiz concurs.

"Odegaard is very creative," says Ruiz. "He plays in that hole between attack and midfield. Real Madrid has a lot of players of this kind, but his timing could be good. Modric is in the final stretch of his career, so there's a space opening up in Real Madrid's squad. He'd have to compete for this place with Isco and Dani Ceballos.

"It's taken a while for Odegaard to explode. He's a player that still has to demonstrate he has it. At Real Sociedad, he's played very well, but he hasn't been under pressure. We have to see how he'll cope at Real Madrid. Until he plays regularly at the Bernabeu, we won't know if he's the top player he seems he could be." 

                 

Follow Richard on Twitter: @Richard_Fitz

La Liga announced Saturday that it has been given clearance to resume the season as soon as June 8.

Per the league's official announcement, the Spanish government gave the go-ahead to resume play following guidelines from the Ministry of Health. 

Per ESPN's Samuel Marsden, the "likely" return date for La Liga will be June 12 or 19, with an official confirmation from president Javier Tebas potentially coming on Sunday. 

La Liga suspended play on March 12, at the time announcing the hiatus would last for a minimum of two weeks. That decision came after Real Madrid chose to self-isolate after a member of the club's basketball team tested positive for COVID-19.

On March 23, the league announced it was postponed indefinitely and wouldn't resume play until it was given clearance by the Spanish government. 

La Liga wasn't alone. A number of prominent leagues around the globe, including the NBA, NHL, Premier League, Bundesliga and Serie A, among others, all suspended their seasons. In the United States, the NCAA canceled the men's and women's college basketball tournaments, while the IOC chose to postpone the 2020 Summer Olympics.

And UEFA postponed the European Championship for an entire year, while both the Champions League and Europa League were halted as well. 

That called into question whether certain leagues would continue playing at all this season, including La Liga, and how those leagues would handle the remainder of the schedule.

Ligue 1 in France and the Eredivisie in the Netherlands canceled their seasons, but the Bundesliga returned to action behind closed doors on May 16.

With La Liga instituting testing for players in early May and the Spanish government giving the league clearance to return, however, games will resume in a welcome piece of news for football fans. 

When league play does continue, a tight title race will resume as well, with Barcelona (58 points) holding a two-point advantage over Real Madrid at the top of the table.

Despite last season's humiliating exit to Liverpool in the UEFA Champions League semi-final at Anfield, Barcelona President Josep Maria Bartomeu and his board could look back with a sense of satisfaction at the club's financial performance.

On paper, things looked rosy. Barca leapfrogged eternal rivals Real Madrid to become football's biggest earner at the top of the annual Deloitte Money League for 2018-2019, registering a 22 per cent increase in revenue from the previous year. Their income of €840.8 million was a chunky €83.5 million more than Real Madrid's.

The COVID-19 crisis has changed everything, however. It brings into stark relief several questionable aspects about Barca's finances, their future earning potential and their ability to remain a force on the pitch in elite football.

Football is a volatile business. Leeds United—who once beat Barca in a European Cup semi-final—have been out of the top tier of English football since 2004. It looks as if at least a decade will pass before Manchester United regain the English Premier League crown they last won in 2013.

The fall of the mighty AC Milan—who have won more European Cups than any other club except Real Madrid—is another cautionary tale. They were consistently the third-wealthiest club in football in the middle of the 2000s, but now they're outside football's top 20 earners.

Barcelona—along with their great rivals in European club football—are under threat. The football industry, which remained immune to the 2008 global financial crash, is on the front line this time of a potentially deep global recession. It's being hit by a far-from-perfect storm.

Barcelona have already lost €154 million as a result of the coronavirus crisis, according to a report in La Vanguardia. This is irrespective of whether there is a conclusion to the 2019-2020 La Liga season, which is set to restart in mid-June (according to La Liga President Javier Tebas, the league will lose €1 billion if it fails to finish its remaining games).

Since the Spanish government brought in a lockdown on March 14, Barca's museum, which earned the club €58 million last year, has been shut. The club's superstores in the city—including one they opened last year along La Rambla, the city's famous boulevard—have also been shut. With the prospect of little international tourism for the rest of the year in Spain, their footfall will remain low when they reopen as part of Spain's phased de-escalation.

All over Barca's business, several income streams have either slowed to a trickle or dried up for the rest of the year. There will be no lucrative summer tour in 2020. Their football schools still have a €15 million payment pending for the final third of their season. That income looks lost. The transfer values of their players have likely plummeted.

Worst of all, it's unlikely the 99,000-seater Camp Nou stadium will open its doors again to the public this year, according to several sources, including Tebas. And this is the optimistic scenario.

Who knows how the coronavirus will develop, whether a second wave will hit Europe or if football fans will be able to stomach watching football in empty stadiums on TV. It could demand some experimental thinking, says Simon Kuper, co-author of Soccernomics and an upcoming book on Barcelona.

"The risk with this pandemic is that football has never paused for this long before [even during World Wars]," says Kuper. "Maybe La Liga will start playing again, but if not, you could have people getting used to a life without watching football on TV. Without fans, it's never been tested. We do know that Serie A games [in the 1990s] famously looked terrible on TV because they were played in front of half-empty stadiums.

"One option that might become a reality—crazy as it sounds—is that football decamps to Australia and New Zealand if they can become COVID-free zones. You'd have, say, the Spanish league (and the Bundesliga, the English Premier League, cricket leagues) and its players moving there for six months with a two-week quarantine.

"Their matches could be played in front of full stadiums in Sydney and Melbourne, games which would be seen on TV stations all over the world—rather than having to watch Real Madrid playing at an empty Alfredo di Stefano training ground [as is planned for La Liga's restart to enable the club to accelerate remodelling of its Santiago Bernabeu Stadium]." 

Barcelona's problems are compounded by reckless spending. They recently splurged several-hundred million euros on misfiring stars, including Ousmane Dembele and Philippe Coutinho, while the jury is still out on Antoine Griezmann, who has yet to jell with Lionel Messi in the team's attack.

Barca also incur the highest wage bill of any football club in the world. The squad earns a yearly average of €11 million per player. The percentage of the club's salary relative to their revenue is 69 per cent, which is dangerously high. Real Madrid's, for example, is 52 per cent.

"If you calculate this figure by taking into account player transfers, that percentage increases and goes above 80 per cent," says Victor Font, who has declared he will run for president of Barcelona at the next election. "Barca have the most expensive team on earth. Obviously the fact that you have Messi—who is the best in the world—is [a factor]. The problem is that the club is paying out too much on other players.

"Barcelona haven't managed their finances properly over the last few years since the last election [in 2015]. We've seen that trend deteriorate since the debacle of Neymar's transfer in 2017 with a couple of very expensive, unsuccessful signings. The club has spent €1 billion on transfers that have not returned the types of results the club's fans were expecting. Combine this with poor management of the core structure of the club, and it has put Barca in a difficult position.

"If you add in the pandemic, it has made the situation worse. It's likely the club will try to explain the difficulty in their finances through the COVID-19 pandemic, but the underlying problems were there already. What we need now is a proper plan to better manage the cost structure and create new revenue streams." 

One way to help with a creaking cost structure is to cut the club's wage bill, but it's notoriously difficult to offload aging, out-of-favour footballers from top clubs who still have time to run on their sweetheart contracts. Look at the Gareth Bale saga at Real Madrid.

Or 32-year-old Ivan Rakitic's case at Barcelona. The Croat said in an interview with Mundo Deportivo in April that he felt like "a sack of potatoes" after Barcelona tried to sell him last summer against his wishes. He wants to see out his contract, which runs until 2021.

"Over time, we're going to see a shrinking of middle-tier high-earners," says Ben Lyttleton, author of Edge: What Business Can Learn From Football. "The really high-earners will retain their value, but the middle high-earners will have to take lower contracts at some point. There will be more opportunities for clubs to give younger players a chance to keep the wage bills down.

"We'll see clubs trying to move on players with good deals. We'll see more swap deals, more loans. There will be a change in how the market will operate. There will be opportunities for smart clubs to find value.

"With a player like Rakitic, there are only a certain number of clubs he would go to. Maybe Barca take the hit and say, 'Go to Napoli, and we'll pay half your wages,' going one level below where he is now. That might have to be the solution that works for everyone. It's a complicated situation."

Barcelona's debt is also troubling, especially given the club's ambitious plans for revamping the Camp Nou in what's called the Espai Barca project. There are conflicting reports about the actual debt figure. The club maintains it is €460 million, although elsewhere it has been reported as being as high as €888 million.

"The club's debt is very high," says Font. "It's much higher than what the club explains. It's something we don't understand: why the club is not being fully transparent, especially given the ownership structure of the club. It's not a publicly listed company, but at the same time, it's not owned by the board. There's no single owner. There should be more transparency.

"It's really hard to distil the actual debt [from the annual accounts]. It's also not taking into account any debt or investment that is being made for the Espai Barca project. What also increases the real debt amount are cash advances that some entities have made, for example, if a sponsor signs a sponsorship deal for, say, €10 million a year, and Barca has asked them to advance the cash.

"When you add everything up, our estimate is that the debt is probably around €700 million, which puts the finances of the club in a perilous position, especially because of its limited profitability. The club generates a lot of revenue, but it spends a lot of money, so it does not generate enough cash to pay the debt back. Obviously when you have this type of financial situation at the time you need to build a new team and pay for the Espai Barca project, that's a concern."

Font adds that Real Madrid have been a lot more "prudent" in managing their finances over the last few years, which puts them in a stronger position facing into a downturn: "They've built a war chest."

---

        

The footballer who has most regularly featured on the front cover of Catalonia's sports newspapers over the last few months has been Lautaro Martinez, the Inter Milan and Argentina striker. He's seen as a successor to Luis Suarez at the club, and he enjoys the blessing of Messi, his compatriot. Can Barcelona afford to buy him this summer, though, given the state of its finances? 

"Barca can buy Lautaro," says Joan Josep Pallas, sports editor of La Vanguardia. "This player in particular is possible because the club could, for example, include a player in exchange to reduce the cost of the transfer.

"If Barca could get Arturo Vidal and Rakitic—two players who are in their 30s and on expensive salaries—to switch for Lautaro, who is 22 years old and has a lot of years to justify his transfer fee, it could work. The problem always for the club is to convince players that they have to leave. Of the 19 players in Barca's squad at the moment, none of them finish their contracts this summer.

"Besides, Lautaro's not a player who commands a very high salary, and the impact of his transfer fee—if it's, say, €70 million—will be spread over five years so you're not paying the full amount up front. What worries Barca most at the moment is not the price of footballers, but the salaries of footballers." 

Messi's salary dwarfs those of his teammates. According to an investigation by Der Spiegel based on Football Leaks documents, Messi was guaranteed a yearly salary of €106 million over four years—which accounts for 40 per cent of the club's salary base—when he renegotiated his contract in 2017.

At the time, the scale of his salary prompted one club executive to remark, according to Football Leaks: "The player needs to be aware of how disproportionately high his salary is relative to the rest of the team," which now reads like a chilling note given the financial crisis the club is facing. If they end up in dire financial straits, could the club be forced into a nuclear option? Would they sell Messi?

"If the club let Messi go, he would always be welcome back to Barca, but the directors who let him go would not only have to leave the city of Barcelona, they'd have to leave Europe," says Santi Gimenez, a journalist with Diario AS.

Maybe the club would never sell Messi, but they might be forced to drastically cut the salaries of him and his teammates (the players are already on a temporary 72 per cent pay cut while the season is suspended).

"If Barcelona's revenue decreases by, say, 30 per cent, the club will have to renegotiate players' salaries," says Pallas. "La Liga President Javier Tebas will propose that the clubs reduce their salaries too. It's the only way football can be sustainable for the coming season, because if you lose 30 per cent of your income, you have to trim expenses, especially when Barca's salaries are their biggest expense.

"The players know as well it would be important for their public image. If one player refused to reduce his salary, it wouldn't go down well with fans. It will be the same for all of Spain's premier division clubs—not just Barca."

If Spanish football—which accounts for 184,000 jobs in the Spanish economy—ends up in a deep recession, it will be the country's smaller clubs that hit the rocks. Many will face bankruptcy. But a club like Barca, which is run by its members and is one of the pillars of Catalan society, will endure. Pallas reckons there would be a "revolution" if it disappeared.  

"All these football clubs will survive," says Kuper. "After the last global financial crisis, UD Salamanca went bust [in 2013] and then they were quickly refounded. You can find in all of western Europe about eight or 10 very small clubs that went bust. Big football clubs like Barca don't go bust. Or correction—they do sometimes go bankrupt, but then they just create a new company and put the football club in that [entity] and continue as if nothing happened. That's what happened with Fiorentina in 2002.

"Remember, Barca's revenues have risen six-fold since about 2003. So even if they lost 80 per cent of their revenue, which I don't think anyone expects, that just takes you back to 2003 when players were pretty well paid. It's not like a restaurant where, if you're making losses, the owner closes down the joint.

"In five years' time, Barca will still be one of football's big clubs. Even if it's been a disaster during that period—say football has had a very long pandemic, three years without crowds, revenues have dropped by 70 per cent—Barca would be back to its revenues of 2007 or 2008. So no big deal. They'll still be a big club, paying footballers multimillion salaries.

"But the club will have the obvious on-field problem of the Messi succession. They've built the club around him. It's hard to see—if he's still playing—that he will be as dominant. You also have this whole generation of Busquets, Pique, Messi to replace. Even when you spend €100 million on people like Coutinho, Griezmann and Dembele, it doesn't seem to work out very well. So you could imagine the club is worried about a Manchester United-type decline."

                         

Follow Richard on Twitter: @Richard_Fitz

There was a moment in Spain's opening game of the UEFA Euro 2012 finals when Andres Iniesta—who went on to be named as player of the tournament—was surrounded by five Italian players trying to steal the ball from him. There's a beautiful symmetry to the image, which has become an iconic sports photograph. Iniesta is wearing his blood-red Spain jersey, his five pursuers—who form a near-perfect circle around him—are in the traditional savoy blue of the Azzurri.

"It was like a 'rondo' [piggy-in-the-middle training exercise] with Iniesta in the middle surrounded by all these Italians. It captured the anarchy that he unleashes," says Alfredo Relano, honorary president of Diario AS. "Iniesta represented—along with Xavi maybe—the purest essence of the model of football that gave Spain their successes in two European Championships [2008, 2012] and the World Cup [2010], and Barca the most glorious era in their history.

"He embodied a type of high-quality, very technical football. It didn't matter that he wasn't physically imposing—that he didn't have a big frame or that he hadn't ferocious speed or he wasn't great in the air. He was all about football based on touch. It was something different—this notion that you could play the best football in the world with total disregard for physique. In all the years I've been reporting football, I never thought it possible you could win this way.

"I remember a phrase that Cesar Luis Menotti [Argentina's 1978 FIFA World Cup-winning coach] once said: 'Spain had to decide between being a bull and being a 'torero' [bullfighter].' A torero weighs 70 kilos and a bull 500 kilos. Spain chose to play like the torero and it ended up winning everything with all these short-sized players. It wasn't only Iniesta—it was David Silva, Juan Mata, David Villa and all these other small players—but it was Iniesta who fundamentally represented that idea. He imposed himself because of science not because of strength."

Iniesta's career with Spain and Barcelona—the club he joined as a 12-year-old, ultimately going on to play on the first team for 16 years following his debut under Louis van Gaal in 2002—was extraordinary. It includes nine La Liga titles, four UEFA Champions League winners' medals and a historic trio of consecutive titles with Spain at international level. He is also immortalised because of two unforgettable goals.

"Sure, he had the luck to score some legendary goals—at Stamford Bridge [90th-minute goal against Chelsea that qualified Barcelona for the 2009 UEFA Champions League final] and Johannesburg [extra-time winning goal against the Netherlands in 2010 FIFA World Cup final]," says Ramon Besa, a friend of Iniesta's and co-author of his autobiography, The Artist: Being Iniesta.

"I remember Pep Guardiola once said: 'In the foot of Iniesta rests the faith of 'barcelonismo' (Barcelona's football fans).' I'm sure Vicente del Bosque felt the same way about 'la seleccion' [the Spain national football team]. If Spaniards had to select a player to score the winning goal in a World Cup final, Iniesta would probably be among the most voted for, if not the most. I have always said that Iniesta played the role of Messi in Spain's national football team."

Iniesta will forever be linked with Messi and their club team-mate, Xavi Hernandez (the three famously shared a podium together at the Ballon d'Or awards ceremony in January 2011). All three of them are small men. All three of them have incredible ball control. Marti Riverola, a former team-mate at Barcelona, makes an interesting distinction about the two Barcelona and Spain midfielders. 

"Xavi and Iniesta had different characteristics," says Riverola. "Xavi was more about positional play—about getting on the ball, keeping it, and holding a position—whereas Iniesta wants to attack an opposition's defensive line. Xavi kept the ball, but Iniesta goes forward, which creates more chances and often ends in a goal. Iniesta was more vertical [direct] than Xavi. Iniesta wants to attack. He wants to score. His mind is always thinking about breaking between the lines.

"Iniesta had something special. With his first touch, Iniesta always knew what way he was going to go. He could turn and change the rhythm of the play, leaving you trailing behind in his wake. It was impossible to take the ball off him. He has eyes at the back of his head. When you played with him in training, he was constantly looking behind himself so he always knew the next move of opposition players. It makes a difference because it means he's always two seconds ahead of every play."

Iniesta's mesmerising ball control is possibly his defining trait. Few, if any, players from the modern era are as graceful on the ball. Few have had the ability to master it so well in tight spaces, to elude the snapping tackles of defenders, to manoeuvre it at will, as if in charge of the proverbial ball on a string, always it seems with a fraction of a second to spare.

"He's just an exquisite technical footballer," says Besa. "There is no player like him to master that relationship between time and space on a football field. He's so elegant on the ball; it's almost impossible to take it off him when he has it. He has a love affair with the ball that I've never seen matched in another player, with the possible exception of Michael Laudrup.

"Other players may also have been very skilful, like Zinedine Zidane, but Iniesta can't rely on protecting the ball with his body [like a bigger, stronger player can], which meant he had to become an escapologist—so he could disappear into thin air. When you watch him, he glides around the pitch like he's skating."

Iniesta has been forthright in revealing his struggles with mental health, which he goes into in detail in his autobiography. He is universally regarded as one of the gentlemen of the game. In almost 900 official football games, he has never been sent off. But the "Mr Nice Guy" label belies a steely determination and focus.

"Guardiola often said that 'Iniesta was like the perfect son'—the perfect player, the perfect human," says Riverola. "He never complained, never caused trouble, always on time, listened to the coach when he spoke. He doesn't have any tattoos. He's a model professional. At La Masia, he always did everything he could to develop himself and become the best player he could be. He was never distracted by a social life or celebrity. He only ever wanted to improve himself as a footballer. 

"At training every day, he was always 100 per cent focused. When you see it in perspective—after my career in football with different clubs—you appreciate the effort he put in. Sometimes, players are tired or they're not in the mood to go training, but Iniesta was always showing you that you have to be focused every day and do yourself justice.

"You can see at Barca, that kind of focus is dwindling year by year. Ten years ago, players used to go 100 per cent in training. Now, it seems, they think they only have to show up on Sunday for matches. It's why they're not getting the same results as in the past. Iniesta grew up with a philosophy of working hard, which other players at La Masia had, too. It's why Guardiola's Barca team was always winning games 6-0, 5-0, 7-1—not because they wanted to ridicule opposition teams, but because they wanted to give 100 per cent of themselves."

"It's definitely notable that Iniesta has always been so kind and such an upright character," adds Relano. "In Spanish, we talk about certain players having a sense of cunning—'la mala leche' (bad milk). It usually helps—the enormous ambition, the great players have. Traditionally, they're predators. They will stop at nothing.

"But it's not a characteristic you associate with Iniesta. After 15, 16 years playing at the top level, I can't recall an unsavoury incident, when he acted badly or lashed out against another player or against a referee, or made a rash declaration. Nothing. He always behaved in an exemplary manner. Nobody could imagine him being conspiratorial. He imbues a certain kind of purity and innocence. How somebody like that can reach the top is a very striking element about his career."

After departing the stage at Barcelona in 2018, Iniesta has chosen Japan for his latest adventure. No other international player—in a country that has hosted the likes of Zico, Diego Forlan and Spain's greatest striker David Villa, an erstwhile team-mate of Iniesta's at Vissel Kobe—has had as profound an impact on the J1 League as Iniesta, argues Sean Carroll, who has been covering Japanese football locally for over a decade. 

"Iniesta's arrival was bigger than that of other international players because he's one of the best players of his generation," says Carroll. "Some of the other stars who turned up were winding down their careers. He's obviously not as young as he once was, but to pick up a player that famous who had achieved as much as he had—direct from Barcelona—was a massive thing for everyone in Japanese football.  

"And he has delivered. He still dominates games, controlling the tempo. You can see he's a cut above the rest of the players he's playing against. He won the Emperor's Cup on New Year's Day this year. That meant that Vissel Kobe qualified for the Asian Champions League. That's what it's all about for the club's owners, Rakuten. It was the first major trophy the club had ever won."

Football in Japan has been suspended because of the coronavirus crisis, as it has elsewhere around the globe, but if and when it resumes, don't discount Iniesta—who celebrates his 36th birthday on May 11—adding to his trophy haul. We can't wait to see him renewing his love affair with the ball.  

     

Follow Richard on Twitter: @Richard_Fitz

Barcelona have been in a difficult place this season. On the pitch, their performances have been patchy, as they have struggled psychologically to get over last year's humiliating 4-0 defeat to Liverpool in the UEFA Champions League semi-final second leg at Anfield—the latest in several capitulations in the knockout stages of the competition in recent years.

Off the pitch, the club have been mired in controversy and infighting. Every month, it seems, team captain Lionel Messi surfaces on social media to berate the club's hierarchy. Before the suspension of the league in March, owing to the coronavirus pandemic, Barca's fans had been waving handkerchiefs at the Camp Nou in protest at club president Josep Maria Bartomeu, who is dogged by a scandal involving social media company I3 Ventures, which had allegedly been smearing his enemies, including Messi and Gerard Pique.

The one shining light to emerge from the season so far has been the eruption of Ansu Fati.

He has broken several records since his La Liga debut as a 16-year-old in August. These include becoming the youngest scorer in the history of the UEFA Champions League when he fired in a goal from outside Inter Milan's box at the San Siro Stadium in December.

Fati's first La Liga goal for the club—which made him the youngest Barcelona player in history to score in the league—came within five minutes of appearing as a substitute against Osasuna at their El Sadar Stadium in Pamplona, a famously tight and inhospitable ground for visiting teams. 

It was only Fati's second game for Barca after a brief cameo the week before against Real Betis in La Liga. Notably, it took Messi nine games before the 18-year-old scored in an official game for Barcelona in 2005. Fati leapt to nod in Barcelona's first goal in a 2-2 draw. The cross for the goal, which came from Carles Perez, wasn't travelling at speed, but Fati managed to power it home from distance.

"I was working with Onda Cero radio here in Pamplona for the game," says Inaki Lorda, a Spanish football journalist. "After the final whistle, I went down to see the players. His physique really impressed me.

"He was still only 16 years of age at this stage, but you could see how strong he was, even though he still has more to grow. He's not a frail young guy like, say, Riqui Puig. The header Ansu scored was evidence of this—the spring he made to get on the end of it in between two big central defenders was incredible. You could see he has something special."

Barcelona's then-coach Ernesto Valverde—who was labouring with an injury crisis to several of his attacking players, including Messi, Ousmane Dembele and Luis Suarez—started Fati against Valencia in the next round of league games. Fati lit up the Camp Nou with a virtuoso display, scoring within two minutes of kick-off.

Albert Puig—who manages Albirex Niigata in Japan as well as heading up APFC, a coaching methodology company—was the man responsible for bringing Fati to Barcelona in 2012 when Puig worked as director of La Masia, Barcelona's famous youth academy. 

"I love this guy Ansu Fati," says Puig. "He's a very versatile footballer. He can play in all of the attacking positions—at 9, 11, 7, 10. He's also fast and he has a great imagination. It comes from playing street football where he grew up in Africa. If you travel to Africa, you'll understand what I'm talking about—this innate football intelligence.

"I lived in Africa for a year. It produces a certain kind of player. It's different with kids in the western world who live more comfortable lives and maybe understand the language of football, but more in an academic way.

"When Ansu was growing up, he got to spend so much of his time playing freely in [pick-up] games. It's the ideal way to create a player who can improvise. He's very smart. In Spanish, we say a player like Ansu is 'espabilado'—sharp as a tack. He sees instinctively things on the pitch other players don't pick up on because he spent so much of his childhood playing outdoors in Africa."

After a blistering start to the season, the Guinea-Bissau native's progress has stalled, however. After scoring a brace in a league game against Levante at the Camp Nou in early February, his chances under new head coach Quique Setien—who has favoured emergency signing 28-year-old Martin Braithwaite as an impact player—have largely dried up. 

"Setien needs guarantees," says Lorda. "Ansu Fati is very exciting, but he's not a guarantee. Braithwaite is proven—he's a finished article. He played well at Leganes before joining Barcelona. He's an interesting signing. It made sense to get him. He's not elite—he's not an Antoine Griezmann or a Suarez or Messi—but he's a good footballer and he's the kind of player that fills out a squad well. He knew from day one that he's not a guaranteed starter.

"Braithwaite gives Setien a level of confidence. Setien has shown that he trusts, too, in veteran players like Arturo Vidal and Ivan Rakitic. I'm sure he'd love to give more chances to Ansu Fati and, say, Riqui Puig, but Barcelona at the moment is a very unsettled place, so he'd prefer to put his trust in the old guard." 

Braithwaite's arrival and the imminent return from injury of the more senior Dembele, who also plays in Fati's position, has left Fati's career at a crossroads. There will also likely be further arrivals this summer. Already, for example, Barcelona paid a reported fee of €31 million in January for the Portuguese starlet Trincao, another wide player, who is set to join the squad next season from Braga.

Last week, Diario Sport reported that Borussia Dortmund are interested in Fati for next season as a possible replacement for Jadon Sancho (if, as suspected, he's sold to an English Premier League club). Fati's profile fits the Bundesliga club—fast and a pure wide player—which is also renowned for developing young talent.  

The possible return of Neymar Jr. to the Camp Nou or the signing of Lautaro Martinez—who has long been linked with a move from Inter Milan as a long-term replacement for Suarez—adds to the uncertainty around Fati's prospects in the Catalan city next season.

"There are so many factors that will affect Ansu Fati's position on Barcelona's squad next season," says Juan Bautista, a journalist with Barcelona-based newspaper La Vanguardia. "If Neymar arrives or not. If the club signs Lautaro. Does Suarez have one more good year? It will be difficult for Ansu to get minutes. It would be easier for him if, for example, Dembele left.

"There are many variables at play. The club also needs to find a solution for Philippe Coutinho, who will be returning from a loan spell. Because of the coronavirus and a deflated transfer market, it will be difficult to sell players if Barca insist on not selling players at cut-price rates.

"To loan out Ansu is a logical solution when you've got players like Dembele and Coutinho who cost so much money. You either sell them cheaply or else they'll have to stay. Nobody is going to pay over €100 million for a player now, especially for a player who is as injury-prone as Dembele or as big a failure as Coutinho was at the Camp Nou. Only an English Premier League team could possibly afford the sums of money required."

Barcelona will be anxious not to let Fati's development run aground. He's already become their 10th-most valuable player, according to Transfermarkt, a German football analysis website. It's vital that he gets the oxygen of game time to continue his progress, but he'll have to compete with several heavyweights for precious minutes next season. 

"If Ansu stays, the club will have to convince him he will be a useful player on the squad," says Bautista. "What can't happen is that he spends a year without playing or only playing a tiny bit. At his age, he needs to develop. 

"In Barcelona, he's often compared with Messi, but there is only one Messi. Even Messi in the summer when he first made Barca's first-team squad in 2005, there were a lot of negotiations afoot. I remember, for example, Espanyol were interested in getting Messi on loan. 

"Then Messi played for Barca in the Joan Gamper Trophy [a pre-season tournament] against Juventus. He wowed their coach, Fabio Capello, who asked Barca's coach, Frank Rijkaard, if he could take him on loan. It opened Barcelona's eyes and they realised: 'We have to keep this guy.'

"Maybe something similar will have to happen with Ansu. He'll have to break down the wall and say, 'I'm very good and I want to play more. Either you get rid of me or you find a solution for me.' Let's see."

     

Follow Richard on Twitter: @Richard_Fitz

Atletico Madrid defender Kieran Trippier was charged with misconduct by the Football Association on Friday for allegedly violating betting rules.

According to Sky Sports, the charges stem from "alleged betting around" July 2019, which is when Trippier transferred from Tottenham Hotspur to Atletico Madrid.

Per Rob Harris of the Associated Press, Trippier has denied the allegations, saying: "I want to make it clear that while a professional footballer, I have at no stage placed any football related bets or received any financial benefit from others betting."

In a statement, the FA specifically explained which two betting rules Trippier is alleged to have breached:

"Rule E8(1)(a): a participant shall not bet, either directly or indirectly, or instruct, permit, cause or enable any person to bet on - (i) the result, progress, conduct or any other aspect of, or occurrence in or in connection with, a football match or competition; or (ii) any other matter concerning or related to football anywhere in the world, including, for example and without limitation, the transfer of players, employment of managers, team selection or disciplinary matters.

"Rule E8(1)(b): where a participant provides to any other person any information relating to football which the participant has obtained by virtue of his or her position within the game and which is not publicly available at that time, the participant shall be in breach of this Rule where any of that information is used by that other person for, or in relation to, betting."

The 29-year-old Trippier has made 19 appearances for the England national team during his career.

Trippier worked his way up through the Manchester City academy from a young age and went on to spend time at Barnsley, Burnley and Tottenham before transferring to Atletico Madrid last year.

He made 19 league appearances for Atletico Madrid during the 2019-20 season before the La Liga campaign was suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic. Atletico are a disappointing sixth in the table with 11 wins, 12 draws and four losses for 45 points in 27 matches, but they did make it through to the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals after beating holders Liverpool in the round of 16.

Fellow English footballer Daniel Sturridge was found guilty of two betting violations last year, and while he was initially suspended for six weeks and fined £75,000, it was announced in March that he would be banned from football through June 17.

Richard Witschge is emphatic. Did the former Netherlands winger see any signs that Zinedine Zidane would go on to become a successful coach during the three years they spent playing together at Bordeaux?

"No," Witschge tells Bleacher Report. "I didn't think so. Because he was very...not shy, but he didn't want the attention. I played for three years with him at Bordeaux, and he went on to be one of the best in the world. But I didn't know that he was going to become a coach."

Witschge's remarks reflect a common refrain among Zidane's former team-mates. It can be little surprise that many of them did not see the Frenchman's transformation coming when the man himself has admitted that after hanging up his boots in 2006, moving to the dugout could not have been further from his mind.

Yet move to the dugout he did, dipping a toe in the water at Real Madrid as sporting director, assistant coach and manager of the club's reserve team before taking the plunge in January 2016 after Rafael Benitez was sacked as head coach. Even his most ardent admirers could not have predicted the success that would follow, as Zidane led Madrid to three consecutive Champions League triumphs (an unprecedented feat for a coach), as well as a pair of FIFA Club World Cup crowns and, in 2016-17, a first La Liga success in five years.

When he returned to the Bernabeu for his second stint as head coach in March 2019, it was as one of the most decorated coaches in the game.

Zidane's own initial reluctance to become a coach, allied to a commonly held perception that he was not manager material, makes the success he has enjoyed all the more surprising. But take a closer look at his extraordinary playing career, and it transpires that as he made his way in the game, elements of his future vocation were falling into place without him—or anybody else—even realising.

He first met David Bettoni, who works as his assistant at Madrid, when they were playing together in the youth ranks at his formative club, Cannes. Stephane Plancque, Madrid's opposition analyst, first crossed his path as a team-mate at Bordeaux. Zidane first encountered Antonio Pintus, the fitness coach he would later hire at Madrid, when he joined Juventus from Bordeaux in 1996. The leading man may have been slow to express an interest in the starring role, but the supporting cast was already waiting in the wings.

As a player, Zidane was famously undemonstrative, a silent, brooding figure gliding balletically through opposition defences, the mask of inscrutability only slipping during the episodic outbursts of violence that pockmarked his career. But beneath the surface, he was watching, listening and absorbing in a manner that would not become fully apparent until he made the transition to coach.

"With hindsight, you can understand why he became a coach," says Madrid-based sports journalist Frederic Hermel, whose biography of Zidane—entitled simply Zidane—was published last year. "He was a sponge. He listened an awful lot. He wasn't someone who spoke very much, but he listened and he observed."

Seen from a distance, Zidane's taciturn nature might have seemed an obstacle to a career as a top-level coach, but those who have worked with him closely say that rather than a weakness, it is merely an indication that he values listening over speaking.

"He stores things up so he can then reproduce them," Guy Lacombe, one of Zidane's first coaches in the Cannes youth academy, told So Foot in 2017. "It's his first quality, furthermore, and the one that makes him the man he is: a listener who soaks up the words of others and knows how to learn. You don't find that very often."

While he may have been reserved in day-to-day life, Zidane took centre stage on the pitch, first at Cannes and then at Bordeaux, where he emerged as the most talented player in the French game. He was only 23 when he helped Bordeaux reach the UEFA Cup final in 1996, but in a sign of his influence, Witschge remembers him coming into the changing room to "pump up the team" ahead of the first leg against Bayern Munich, for which he was suspended. (Bordeaux lost 2-0 in Munich in Zidane's absence, and he was powerless to prevent a 3-1 defeat when he returned for the second leg a fortnight later.)

In spite of his tender age, there were also signs that he already possessed strong convictions about how football should be played.

"He liked attacking, attractive, technical football," recalls Witschge, who had previously played for Ajax and Barcelona. "Good football. That's how he played. He always said he liked the style of Ajax and also Barcelona at the time, the style of Johan Cruyff. We talked about it, the style of football and how the youth teams played at Ajax. He was interested in those kinds of things."

Whatever Zidane might have thought he knew about football, he received a rude awakening upon arriving at Juventus in the summer of 1996. He was shocked by the intensity of the fitness drills he encountered in his first pre-season, and Portuguese left-back Dimas, who joined Juve from Benfica a few months later, recalls being similarly taken aback himself.

"To tell you the truth, it was a nightmare, physically," Dimas tells Bleacher Report. "For the Italians, it was their day-to-day. They were examples. Guys who'd been there for years: [Ciro] Ferrara, [Moreno] Torricelli, [Angelo] Di Livio, [Attilio] Lombardo, [Gianluca] Pessotto. I can't think of an Italian player who was a lazy guy. Even [Alessandro] Del Piero, with all his quality, worked like an animal. You just had to do it too. It helped me be a better player, and it surely helped Zidane be a better player as well."

Working under lead fitness coach Giampiero Ventrone, Pintus helped to set the gruelling tempo of the squad's physical work. Two decades later, Zidane appointed him as his strength and conditioning coach at Madrid in 2016, and the Italian's exacting fitness sessions laid the foundations for the league and Champions League double that would follow the season after.

Zidane also used his understanding of the game's physical side to convince Cristiano Ronaldo that sitting out occasional league games would enable him to hit peak form in the Champions League knockout rounds, as the Portuguese forward did to spectacular effect in each of his last two seasons at the Bernabeu.

Beyond the energy-sapping work that he had to put in on the training ground at Juventus, what stuck with Zidane was the winning culture at the club. Head coach Marcello Lippi created an environment in which only the highest standards would be tolerated, and just as for his France team-mate Didier Deschamps, who arrived in Turin two years before him, it had a lasting impact on Zidane's conception of the game.

"It was in Italy that he learned about top-level competition in every sense," Hermel tells Bleacher Report. "He learned about competitiveness as a player in Italy, and he also learned what it took to plan a season, with lots of physical work in the summer and again just after the winter break. As a coach, he's an Italian."

By the time Zidane joined Madrid in the summer of 2001 in a transfer that made him the most expensive player in football history, he was already a world and European champion with France, a double Serie A champion, a Ballon d'Or winner and a two-time FIFA World Player of the Year. The unforgettable volley he scored against Bayer Leverkusen in Glasgow at the end of his first season, which gave Madrid their ninth European Cup, further cemented his legacy as an all-time great.

As he made his way through the Madrid youth ranks in the early 2000s, Alvaro Mejia idolised Zidane from afar. The young centre-back broke into Madrid's first-team squad during the 2003-04 season and discovered that although Zidane would make his displeasure plain when he felt the team's performance levels were not up to scratch, he was also eager to pass on advice to younger players.

"I remember some games when he was very upset," Mejia tells Bleacher Report. "Like the Champions League quarter-final against Monaco [in 2004, which Madrid lost on away goals]. He had the character of a winner, and he would show that, even in training. When the situation was going wrong, he was always the first to speak to the players and say, 'Hey, what's going on here?'

"But I also remember many times him coming to me and giving me advice on how to read the game or how to be ready for certain things. Like how to break a line with a pass. Never loud or shouting at me in a bad way. If he saw something from you that was not good, he'd come to you and tell you in a quiet way, to try to improve you."

Zidane's achievements on the pitch, coupled with the relationships he formed with key Madrid players while working as Carlo Ancelotti's assistant in the 2013-14 campaign, meant that by the time he was appointed as Benitez's successor in early 2016, he already had the full respect of the changing room. By intelligently cultivating those changing-room bonds, he laid the foundations for the staggering success that would follow over the next two-and-a-half years.

From a tactical perspective, Zidane has not reinvented the wheel. His approach is all about creating a solid defensive structure and granting his attacking players liberty to express themselves.

Hermel, who has gotten to know Zidane well during the Madrid coach's 19 years in the Spanish capital, describes him as a tactical "pragmatist" whose reluctance to discuss his team's tactics in public reflects a belief—developed during his time in Italy—that "secrecy is a part of strategy." Still scarred by his experiences of having to sit through interminable team talks as a player, Zidane keeps his tactical instructions punchy and to the point.

"When I was a footballer, I hated it when the coach gave long team talks," he tells Hermel in Zidane. "It was the same for my team-mates, who stopped listening after 10 minutes. So today, when I have to speak to a player, I restrict myself to one or three instructions and always finish with, 'Now go and enjoy yourself on the pitch.' Nothing more, nothing less."

Where Zidane excels as a coach is in reading the mood in the changing room and transmitting his own personal calmness to his players. For Dimas, who spent two years playing alongside Zidane at Juventus, it is an approach redolent of the way Lippi went about his work.

"I think he learned this with Lippi," says the former Portugal international. "Because Lippi was this type of coach. Very calm. Very aggressive when he had to take big decisions. But most of the game, he'd give you the tranquillity of saying, 'You guys are playing and you know what to do.' That's what I see [with Zidane]. He's not always on top of his players. He lets them do their thing. When there's a goal, he shows emotion. But he tries to give calmness to the team to let them play."

Mejia, who left Madrid in 2007 and is now playing in Qatar, adds: "As a player, he always found the best way to speak to other players, and as a coach, he's doing the same thing. He gets control of the changing room through speaking to the players, and on the other hand, he has the winning character that he gives to his players. It's the perfect balance."

An iron fist in a velvet glove. Just as he was as a player, so Zidane is as a coach.