"The clubs told us that Barça's women's team was a gang."

BarcelonaXavi Llorens (Barcelona, ​​1958) is the quintessential unsung hero of Barça. A pioneer of the women's team – which he managed between 2006 and 2017 – Llorens has also been involved in futsal and youth football, allowing him to boast of having been Leo Messi's first coach at the club. "I've always been told that a pétanque team will be formed and that I'll have to start it. What I like is being in the shadows, doing less visible work, and going almost unnoticed," he explains to ARA. The coach – who has played various roles in the game of pétanque – laid the foundations for a Barça team that won three Champions League titles. "We just had to work and convince the players that what we wanted to do was win a lot of things," he says.

But it hasn't been an easy road. The coach took the reins of the women's team in the 2006-2007 season, the year they were relegated to the Second Division. "In the first meeting at the Spanish Federation, they already told me we were going down because all the clubs said we were a bunch of nobodies. The players weren't enthusiastic," he confesses. The Barcelona native insists that the key was believing in what they were doing. "We were consistent and very realistic about where we were and where we wanted to go. The club told me: 'You'll be relegated.' But it's okay, even if you're relegated for three years. Sometimes it's better to go down to come back up," he says.

Llorens admits that when he arrived at Barça, he didn't have a single member of the coaching staff, not even a physical trainer. "In 2007, I proposed two players—Berta Carles and Alba Vilàs—to be the physical trainers for the first team and the reserve team because they had the necessary qualifications. In 2014, I was able to expand the coaching staff with two more people: the assistant coach, Jordi Ventura, and a goalkeeping coach, Oriol Casares," she recalls. This work began to bear fruit in 2012 with their first league title. This earned them the opportunity to play, for the first time in their history, in the Women's Champions League. It was on September 26, 2012, at the Miniestadi. The Blaugrana lost 0-3 in the round of 32, but they had achieved the first step they wanted to take. "When you said 'we'll play in Europe,' people laughed, and the players would tell you, 'Come on, stop talking nonsense,'" recalls a humble Xavi Llorens, who cherishes the friendships he maintains with the female footballers.

Work and trust

The coach had to tell Alexia Putellas she had to leave. "When I arrived in 2006, I had to tell her she couldn't continue at Barça because we didn't have a team for her age group. She was very young, and I wasn't interested in her playing with the B team; I preferred her to be playing in the First Division and developing as a player. She went to Espanyol and Levante, but we knew that sooner or later..." Alexia even played left-back under Llorens. "We're very clear about how we want to play and the work the players have to do. I want versatile players. Alexia was amazed when I put her at full-back in San Sebastián. Patri Guijarro has played center-back, midfielder, and forward. They all have to be prepared to contribute and be positive about everything they do."

A journey in which many people have been key. "When Josep Maria Bartomeu's board came in, they asked me what we could do to improve. I told them to stop training at nine o'clock at night, to provide more support for training, nutrition, rest, and travel," Llorens emphasizes. "I initially had the confidence of Maria Mestre, who was the vice president. The girls needed much more visibility and support. These are steps, like opening Camp Nou and filling it with fans under Laporta's board," he adds.

But every story has an end. After eleven years at the helm of women's football, Llorens closed that chapter in 2017. "I was very tired of the tension and stress it caused, and I brought all of this home with me, and my wife and son suffered. I made the decision with Jordi Mestre in December 2016. I hadn't been able to transmit that passion to the players for a year and a half," he concludes.

Sarrià's '14'

A career that wouldn't have been possible without the advice of Johan Cruyff, his childhood idol. "As a kid, I supported Barça and Ajax because of number 14 [Johan Cruyff]. People in my neighborhood, Sarrià, didn't call me Xavi, they called me Johan because I wanted to imitate him in everything. I was lucky enough to become his friend and be able to go watch training sessions and be in the first team's locker room," recalls a player with whom he maintains contact and doesn't rule out the possibility of him staying to live in Castelldefels. "He was a Maradona, he's always been a game-changer."

A comparison the coach can make after watching both Argentine footballers train together. "When I was young, I played futsal and went to the medical clinic a lot to get injections. When I left, I'd hide in the stands watching Menotti train with Diego Armando Maradona. It was amazing what he could do with a sock. He'd be on the ground, taking off his socks, taking them off, taking them off again, showing off his touches. Incredible things he does with an orange in the locker room," he summarizes.