Blue and red festival

At the start of the season, Barcelonism agreed that winning the League again would be a great achievement, because the team “of all Spaniards” could not repeat the surprising, almost ridiculous, blank year with a squad full of multi-million euro signings who were supposed to usher in some new era of world football under a new coach, Xabi Alonso, presented as a Guardiola for this new hegemony. Eight months and two coaches later, Alonso appears on the long list of victims of president Florentino Pérez; the multi-million euro signings have once again shown that, as Cruyff used to say, you've never seen a bag of money score goals; Madrid is once again left blank; Barça wins the League for the second consecutive year, and, in line with this good governance, Mourinho (!) is rumoured for next year.

But the white self-destruction doesn't explain why this League has once again been blaugrana. The game has had brilliant individual contributions such as those of Lamine Yamal, Eric Garcia, Fermín, Cubarsí or Joan Garcia, or the goals of Ferran, Lewandowski and Raphinha. Furthermore, in a season marked by long injuries, Flick's management of the squad has been excellent. And the hunger, quality and responsibility of a group of homegrown youngsters have done the rest.

In a week like this, we must also remember and appreciate Cruyff's winning legacy. To put into historical perspective what this League means, I would like to put it in biographical terms: when I turned 30, I had seen Barça win three Leagues (74, 85, 91). Today, 34 years later, I will have seen them win eighteen (92, 93, 94, 98, 99, 05, 06, 09, 10, 11, 13, 15, 16, 18, 19, 23, 25 and now 26). Nothing more needs to be added.