The Barça anti-footballer

BarcelonaIt's easy for a stadium security guard with little interest in football to block your way so you're mistaken for an intruder. The vast majority of modern footballers not only are, but also look like one: a buff gait, more square inches of tattooed skin than virgin skin, Popeye muscles, a look that feels like they're being watched, flow A rapper with a criminal record and an outfit designed under the influence of hallucinogens. Our protagonist doesn't fit any of these characteristics. He could appear on the Panini sticker album for the 96-97 La Liga alongside Pedro José de la Extremadura.

He's never made a splash, not when he was the protagonist during Barça's last election campaign, nor the two times it seemed his life was irrevocably drifting away from the club where he grew up. Nor when he was on the verge of being one of the architects of the Blaugrana's qualification for the final of the last edition of the Champions League, or now that he's beaten Kounde at the start of this season, who still hasn't recovered from his vacation. I'm talking about Eric Garcia, the anti-footballer (sticking to the criteria mentioned in the first paragraph) of Hansi Flick, a 24-year-old who, if he weren't one of the joys of Barça today, you could find him in Martorell's main square having a café con leche before starting an eight-hour workday in an office.

His position in the squad, which was questioned before Flick's arrival, which led him to visit the Lioness's Ass in Girona (and there participate in the best season in the history of Míchel's team), has solidified like a thousand-year-old stalactite over the last year. At a time when Laporta's board is constantly ruminating on the possibility of offloading players to improve the fair play In the financial sector, Eric Garcia's name hasn't even been mentioned in the halls of Aristides Maillol. At least not yet. When August began, no one expected it either. the departure of Iñigo Martínez And now we've had him playing in Saudi Arabia for a few days alongside Cristiano Ronaldo.

The break from Saturday's match against Levante demonstrated that Flick doesn't see Eric Garcia as a possibility in the starting lineup. With the score 2-0 down, the German coach benched Marcus Rashford and Marc Casadó to bring on two more starting players, Dani Olmo and Gavi. However, Kounde didn't replace Eric Garcia until the 85th minute, when the Catalan was already fatigued after spending the entire match moving up and down the right flank to support Lamine Yamal.