"Maqui, take me to Barça, I score a penalty and I retire"

BarcelonaSimple, emotional, and familiar. Nothing less was expected for the farewell ceremony of Pedro Rodríguez Ledesma, the silent hero of the best Barça in history. The Canarian forward says goodbye to 19 years of professional career. He will blow out 40 candles in 2027 and feels that the time has come to retire to spend more time with his partner, Patricia, and his four children. The youngest, Alejandra, spent the ceremony sitting on her father's lap, who brought her up on stage to silence her crying. It won't be long before she understands the impact of Pedrito, later Pedro, the son of a humble gas station attendant from Tenerife who one day landed in Barcelona and the next day, so to speak, became a legend.

Barça opened the Auditori 1899, as on great occasions, to pay tribute to the first player in history to score in all six official competitions in a single season, 2009-2010. As he did with Sergio Busquets, Pep Guardiola pulled him out of his sleeve, molding him to his liking until he became an ideal piece for a memorable team. "I demand that you be proud of the career you have had," the coach from Bages, brilliantly imperative, dedicated to him in a farewell video. Neither he nor anyone would have ever said that Pedrito would lose the diminutive through decisive goals and important titles, and that in seven seasons as a blaugrana he would play 321 official matches, add 20 titles (among them three Champions Leagues), and contribute 99 goals.

Precisely this last figure will go down in history as one of the few thorns in the side in the career of a great specialist in deciding finals (Monaco 2009, Abu Dhabi 2009, London 2011, Tbilisi 2015, my goodness), who, just like Lionel Messi, the only active survivor of that unrepeatable Barça, was left wanting to experience a last dance at the Camp Nou. "Maqui, take me there, I'll score a penalty and retire". That is how Pedro explained, with a relaxed tone, how a few years ago he asked Xavi Hernández to bring him back to his Barça. "Dani [Alves] returned, but with Pedro it couldn't be because we were in a difficult situation", replied the man from Terrassa himself, who participated in the event after a very cold greeting with Joan Laporta.

Distance between Xavi Hernández and Joan Laporta

Beyond staging the more than evident distancing from the current Barcelona management, the brand-new head coach of the Netherlands, who in his playing days was tired of distributing assists to Pedro, called for valuing the Canary Islander's legacy more: "He is humility personified. I have never seen him make a bad face. To me, he is a very underrated player. His teammates value him a lot, but the public and the critics not so much. For passers like me, he was a superlative player".

A bit more diplomatic were Carles Puyol and Busquets, the other two members of the best Barça in memory who participated in person at the event. "We lived great moments thanks to him and he made us all better," affirmed the former defender. "It's time to disconnect a bit from football, but he will miss the day-to-day with his teammates," reflected the former midfielder, who also retired a few months ago and is currently doing an internship to be a coach in the future at Barça Atlètic with Juliano Belletti.

Other former teammates and a former coach –the absence of Messi from the list was surprising– appeared in a long video of dedications for Pedro, who imagines himself linked to football now that he will stop playing it professionally. "Maybe as a coach, maybe as an agent," thought the Canary Islander out loud, who from now on will settle in Barcelona after a profitable end to his career in Rome, first at the eponymous club and then at Lazio. In Tenerife, his homeland, they will be left wanting to see him play. But Pedrito, Pedro, prioritizes growing old where one day he grew up.