It was the closest title race in the history of the Spanish League. Barça won the title with a total of 99 points. Real Madrid were in second with 96. It basically came down to a single game between the two of them.
99 points in a season is a record for most points earned for a team, not only in Spain but also in all of major European play. That puts Barça's squad at a summit of the very greatest teams to ever play the game.
Still, there is a bitterness there at them losing out on the Champion's League to Inter Milan. What can you do?
Laporta can't ever be satisfied
Since the season ended about a month ago, the business of the team has turned to establishing the drama of the next season. The team has made a formal offer for Cesc Fabregas from Arsenal. Fabregas, of course, came up through the Barça youth system and was pulled away to London at the age of 17. Now he is 23 and the team want to bring him back like the prodigal son.
As the club's president for the last seven years, Joán Laporta has to retire from his post this summer. It's like any presidency-there are term limits. The dudes who are vying to be his successor have all used the courting of Fabregas as a campaign promise to help them secure the position of club president. I never write too much about the larger curious political intricacies of the club that is 'mes que un clúb' [more than a team], because I honestly cannot really follow it. It's a bit ironic, I know. Mostly the club president seems to be the public face of the backers and administration of the team, but to weigh one from another is more difficult to gauge then the efficacy of Ibrahimovic as a striker vs. Eto'o.
David Villa looking Douchey
Though he is on the way out, Laporta has still been a busy CEO for the team. They signed David Villa from Valencia as a striker right after the season drew to a close. Villa is a badass. He scored the second or third most goals in the league and will be a welcome addition to the front line, as Henry is leaving for the bright lights and muddled play of the MLS in New York City for the, cough, Red Bulls.
Who the fuck comes up with these MLS names?? Pathetic. New York City Red Bulls? Really?? Were the Mountain Dews already taken? How about the San Francisco Yoo-Hoos? Too on the nose? Whatever. I can't blame him for going. The money is bound to be retarded-good, and who wouldn't want to play in one of the world's greatest cities at the end of his career? An ultimate cash-out for a prize fighter.
Though they were nearly unbeatable, too much of the burden of goals fell on the wunderkind, Leo Messi. Now with Villa there will be another go-to guy with golden boots. What is more tricky to figure is just how the team will be able to adjust to Fabregas in the line-up. After all, he is a mid-fielder where the team has a surplus of vital players in Iniesta and Xavi. The line-up will have to shift in ways that remain mysterious. Of course, the team's initial offer of 35€M has been rejected by Arsenal and they may have to go up to 50€M to bring him back to Barça.
Why would the team go so hard for another superstar signing? It rivals the spending of Real Madrid a year ago in their cash-makes-right buying spree that netted them Kaka and C. Ronaldo. The answer is clearly because although they edged out Real Madrid for the titles this year, they just barely did it and La Merengue decided to hire Jose Mourinho from Inter Milan--the team that served as the thorn in Barça's side just a month ago. The stumbling block in their quest to be clearly recognized as history's greatest.
Mourinho being a prick when Inter beat Barça
This year was the most competitive ever in Spanish football--at least between the two top teams--and Real Madrid are dying to revenge-fuck Barça for making them settle for second best. The shit is so petty. Mourinho, being a bitter ego-maniacal douche, is thrilled at the possibility of amplifying his personal beef with Barcelona by coaching their arch-rivals against them. Plus, even he couldn't stomach how rife the Italian Serie-A is with corruption and crap vibes.
Before any of that manifests in August with the first pre-season games, there is the World Cup to watch. Lot's of people have "fever" for it, but me? Not so much. In the age of globalism and post-post-colonialism, the rivalries between nations seem less intriguing to me than the shit that's going down between the Catalans and the Castellanos of Spain. Of course, I will still watch with interest, but the nationalism inherent in the event puts me off somehow. Who even thinks about Canada, much less argues with them?
Still, I am eager to see if Maradona will go batshit on the sidelines as he coaches Argentina. If Messi will deliver in national play as he does for his club. If Henry will redeem his misguided tricky handball that helped to knock Ireland out a few months back with some beautiful goal that I had given up hope for from him. I want to see how bad England will be derailed by their personal soap-operas and injuries.
World Cup is more like NASCAR for me: I only really watch for the crashes.
