2023-05-28 21:24:07
Barcelona66 years later, the curtain fell on the Camp Nou as we understood it until now. When it rises again, the scene will be quite different. It will be a modern stadium adapted to times that go too fast, with no room for romanticism. No more leaks, no more damp spots, no more discolored old plastic chairs that need to be renewed. But neither are those corners where the passion has been transmitted from parents to children, making the Camp Nou the stadium where everyone wanted to play, that everyone wanted to visit. A temple, a place of pilgrimage. The best stadium in the world, wow. The stadium where Cruyff flew in an impossible goal, where Maradona made his debut in Europe, where Romario taught us what a cow’s tail is and where Guardiola was the conductor of a team where a small Argentinian boy showed that for to reign you don’t need to be a great orator.
If in 1957 Eulogio Martínez, the Paraguayan striker who opened cans and made roots in Barcelona, scored the first goal, this Sunday in May 2023 it was Gavi who scored the last goal in a stadium that no longer it lived up to its name. Again it has nothing, this field. In order to be new again, you have to go into exile on a magical mountain that seems too far away, too cold. But it will be time to climb this path, now it was about closing a stage as it should, with a triumph against a Mallorca that put all kinds of facilities, as if it was clear that it was not his turn to spoil the party. It was the day to say goodbye to Sergio Busquets and a Jordi Alba who left the pitch crying, overcome by emotion, with 10 minutes to go. To close a stage that, in the end, is a whole life. A festive Sunday with a bunch of little ones at their parents’ hut. Floods of people, wearing shirts from different decades and names of past heroes on their backs, approached the Camp Nou trying to remember the first time they went there. Remembering those people who are no longer there, those grandparents who sat in the old wooden chairs of the 60s, when the workers wore caps and the bleachers were one of the few places where you could speak Catalan. How many anecdotes that hide the corners of a stadium that needs to change completely to remain the envy of the world.
Ansu Fati, a couple of goals
It was a day to celebrate a long and special path of Alba and Busquets, the last survivors of a golden era that ended like the rosary of the dawn. Mallorca, who were immediately down to 10 men when Amath suffered a timely bout of madness and injured Alejandro Balde with a criminal tackle, saw Ansu Fati make it two goals in a first half in which they still could have end worse But Dembélé, playing on the right, did not have a sharp aim. It was a strange match, with a good part of the stadium waiting for the fate of Espanyol and others waiting for the final party when, at the end of the match, Barça looked for the third with some reluctance. Especially Lewandowski, to keep increasing his goal numbers. He was not lucky. The one who found it was Gavi, one of the smallest, with a shot from distance with 20 minutes to go, when the whole stadium, as if it were a party, sang with one voice.
“I have been here for 18 years and this has been the happiest day of my life”, Alba said excitedly, who wanted to remember the figure of Tito Vilanova, “who signed me in 2012”, in his speech of farewell before giving the floor to Busquets. “What luck it has been to be able to play here”, said the player from Badia excitedly, member of one of the few families in which father and son have jumped on the pitch of the Camp Nou. “We put an end to the stadium, we will return with the best stadium in the world. I had always dreamed here, I came to watch the games, I went to the finals and the pride of being part of the best team in the world is unique. I am partner, fan and now I’m leaving, but the dream came true,” said the Valaisian.
No, this field has not just been a sports venue. It has been a home, a refuge and the center of gravity for millions of people. For some, it will always be the memory of grandfather’s strong hand, talking to him about names of the past, of Kubala, Ramallets, Basora or the Gypsy Biosca. For others it will be that crazy kiss on the grass after jumping to celebrate a Chilean from Rivaldo. A stadium of broken hearts and dashed hopes for those who thought their Barça would never reign in Europe, of tragic nights and unexpected defeats. For a new generation, it was already the stadium of sweet memory nights, where on any given night the sun came out and Madrid conceded five goals and left with their tails between their legs.
A stadium where concerts have been held to claim a language and demand freedoms. At the final party, a pile of giant T-shirts recalled the most memorable nights in the stadium, while the voice of Lluís Llach sang about a stake that still does not fall and is still too strong, as the elections have shown. No, it doesn’t fall, this stake, quite the opposite. But neither does the spirit of a people who danced sardanas in 1957 and danced them again in 2023, now that modern groups claim it. A town where a man who became a member of Barça when the darkest night began, in 1939, today gave a flag to two youngsters to keep the flame alive in a symbolic gesture in the middle of the lawn. A stadium that has been Olympic and World Cup and where Pizzi was Macanudo. The stadium that cried Cruyff, Kubala and Tito Vilanova. The stadium of a thousand memories that Joan Laporta and Xavi Hernández watched on the screen, excited, at the end of the match. The stadium that has celebrated goals by Messi, but also by Alexia Putellas. Perhaps it was not a final farewell, since in the distant future he will return, at the Camp Nou. But it will no longer be that stadium to which the longed-for Manel Vich welcomed. How many longing people, in days like these. What a beautiful road, this one.
- FC Barcelona: Ter Stegen, Balde (Sergi Roberto, 17′), Kounde, Christensen, Jordi Alba (Marcos Alonso, 79′), Sergio Busquets (Eric Garcia, 83′), Gavi, De Jong, Dembélé (Ferran Torres, 83′ ‘), Lewandowski and Ansu Fati (Raphinha, 78’).
- Mallorca: Greif, Maffeo, Gaya (Grenier, 46′), Valjent, Copete, Costa (Quintanilla, 85′), Dani Rodriguez (Angel Rodriguez, 72′), Baba, Morlanes (Gonzalez, 85′), Ndiaye and Muriqi ( Abdon Pratts (78′).
- Goals: 1-0, Ansu Fati (1′), 2-0, Ansu Fati (24′) and 3-0, Gavi (69′).
- Referee: Jorge Figueroa Vázquez (Andalusian Committee).
- Yellow cards: none.
- Red cards: Amath Ndiaye (14′).
- Stadium: Spotify Camp Nou (88,775 spectators).
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