Joao Cancelo's great motivation

BarcelonaJoao Cancelo will once again accumulate minutes with Barça when La Liga resumes, after being unable to play in the Champions League due to not being registered for the league phase. The visit of Oviedo (4:15 PM, DAZN), the bottom-placed team, is a good opportunity for the Portuguese player to continue his readjustment, after already playing the last half hour of the defeat at Anoeta. In that match, Cancelo showed Hansi Flick that he can deliver a precise cross that almost resulted in the equalizer, as well as have lapses in concentration that trouble the German manager. Although Flick publicly endorsed his arrival and sporting director Deco explained that Barça would have liked to keep him in the summer of 2024, Cancelo's starting position is far from guaranteed. This could be the main crutch for a talented footballer who experienced the best and worst moments of his career under Pep Guardiola, a coach he had admired for his time on the Barça bench. City paid Juventus €65 million in 2019 to sign him, and under the Santpedor-born manager, he shone as a complete full-back with a significant impact on the game. He could play both as a holding midfielder and as an attacking midfielder, starting from the wing. "He's so intelligent that he brings special things to the team," Guardiola said when Cancelo began to shine, after an inconsistent start. City teammates like Bernardo Silva and Rúben Dias highlighted his ability to decide matches from deep: "With him, you always have an extra passing option."

In fact, the footballer from Barreiro, a working-class town near Lisbon, has often been highly valued by his teammates. At Barça, he maintains a great relationship with Gavi, who was one of the first to celebrate his return, and he also played alongside Eric Garcia at City, when the Catalan center-back was just starting to break into the first team. "He's usually well-liked in the dressing rooms he's in. At City, he helped Eric, for example, and apart from the Portuguese players or the teammates with whom he can speak Spanish, he also got along very well with, for example, [Riyad] Mahrez," recalls a source familiar with the Portuguese player's time in the dressing room. cityzenNow he's playing alongside Eric for the first time at Barça, since the center-back from Martorell spent his first spell at the club at Girona. "However, the situation with the coach when he sees he's not playing as much as he'd like is another matter," the same source warns. As is well known, the relationship between Cancelo and Guardiola deteriorated beyond repair. As the Portuguese player lost his place in City's starting eleven, he became a difficult figure to manage in the dressing room, to the point that he had to leave on loan, first to Bayern and then to Barça. Cancelo's love for the Blaugrana stems from the fact that, like so many other children, as a teenager he fell in love with Ronaldinho's Barça, and later, years later, with Pep Guardiola's Barça. The family tragedy that marked him

Playing for Barça is a dream come true for Cancelo, as is having triumphed as an elite footballer and being able to earn a living as a professional in the sport—a promise he made to his late mother, Filomena, who died in a car accident in 2013. It was January 5th, and he suffered minor injuries in the same car. They had just dropped his father, Joseph, off at the airport. This tragedy deeply affected him, to the point that he considered ending his career when he was grieving. Cancelo explained that the loss left him devastated and unmotivated. The persistence and support of Benfica and its coaching staff were key to his continuing as a footballer. "When I lost my mother, I felt like I was at rock bottom. I felt like a robot who had to do his job and then go home, day after day. I didn't enjoy football; I played because I had to. I seriously considered giving up because it had lost its meaning. But the Benfica staff kept calling me, asking me to keep calling." Champions Journal.

Cancelo, who grew up in a humble family, explains that a conversation with his father was decisive in his decision to continue playing. "My father let things calm down and then spoke to me. He told me that he and my brother needed me. They needed me to be strong because my father had to stay in Portugal; he couldn't return to Switzerland, where he had often gone to work. By then, I had already signed a professional contract with Benfica and was ready to play for a long time. At first, it wasn't easy. I had no strength, no desire, but that conversation with my father and the love I have for this sport helped me overcome everything."