The real prize

Still under the intoxicating effect of this season finale, I'd like to point out just two things today. The first occurred to me yesterday while listening to President Laporta on RAC1, interviewed by Basté, happy about a great season, but above all, practicing the honorable virtue of being generous in victory. It reminded me of a reflection by Pep Guardiola on the peculiarities of the Barça environment: "There are many small wars when you're Barça's manager.

You have to decide which one you want to fight, and you're making a big mistake if you want to fight the useless ones. Your only war is one: make your team play, convince the players, each day a little more, to go out and win this Wednesday, and Saturday, and Wednesday and Saturday... All the rest? Don't get involved! And later: "(We have) an environment that isn't easy, which is a daily, familiar, exhausting struggle, because they only want to belittle you, and it's a constant belittlement, and it's questioning everything you do, every decision you make, and, of course, there comes a time when..."

What this season has demonstrated, I think, better than the last, and sometimes cruelly, is that the game, for those other than the Barça manager, for directors and employees, and above all for the president, extends far beyond the limits of the playing field.

I wrote the second note after attending the Cup final and experiencing the fantastic atmosphere we experienced in Seville between the two rival fan bases:

With this Barça we will spend many more hours in communion with the people we love.

Beyond the good play, the brilliant plays, seeing talent sprout and then blossom in new forms, beyond the discouragement, the excitement and the great victories, beyond the possibility of winning titles and enlarging the trophy cabinet, the legacy, the history, even beyond defeating the rival, of exposing the emptiness of many of their proclamations, the true reward of a good season for your team, and which no one ever mentions, but which suddenly jumps out and becomes evident, when you see the tides of fans of all ages gathering in bars, in clubs or dining rooms of private homes, piling into subway cars, walking to the stadium or making motorcycles with flags whizz by, is that you will be able to spend many afternoons, eves, mornings, sharing with family and friends moments of intense emotion, of hope, of excitement and nerves, alternating between disappointments and bursts of euphoria, which otherwise, if your team doesn't make it, you would not share together.

Why? Because if the team isn't performing, the fans inevitably disengage. The real reward of having a great team again is that we'll spend many more hours communing with the people we love.