Ridiculed in the UK and vilified by Internazionale fans
after exaggerating contact from Thiago Motta to get the midfielder sent off,
the 23-year-olds ability is often lazily dismissed and his contribution to
Barcelona and Spain's success are quickly overlooked.
Busquets was not developed in La Masia, and came to the Catalans relatively late in 2005 from
Unio Jabac aged 16. He was a mainstay of Pep Guardiola’s B team in the
2007-2008 season and after helping the team win promotion he followed Guardiola
in being promoted to the full squad for 2008.
Guardiola’s first season in charge was a revelation; the
Catalans won the first ever treble in Spanish history, which included a
stunning 2-0 win over Manchester United in the Champions League final.
Prima-donna players like Deco and Ronaldinho were moved on and in came a
midfield three of Xavi, Andreas Iniesta and Sergio Busquets, one of the first
names on the team sheet at 19 years of age.
The tika-taka style which Rijkaard had implemented was
refined by Guardiola and with the repositioning of Lionel Messi as a ‘false
number 9’, rather than out wide, Barcelona soon became the most impressive club
team in football. Busquets was an integral part of the side and his tactical
intelligence and constant availability meant Xavi and Iniesta could impose
their game higher up the pitch.
In winning the Champions League in his breakthrough season,
Busquets also joined an exclusive club of father and son combinations to have
both won the Champions League with the same team (the Maldini’s at Milan and
Manuel Sanchez Hontiyuelo and Manuel Sanchez Martinez of Real Madrid are the
other two). Carles Busquets kept goal for Barcelona in the 90s and was backup
during the 1992 European Final at Wembley.
The younger Busquets has gone on to average 48.5 games a
season since stepping up to the full squad, more appearances than Iniesta and
Pique for instance, but yet he is rarely appreciated as a player outside of
Barcelona. He might have exaggerated contact to get Thiago Motta a second
yellow card, but in a game of professionals if the other team is reduced to ten
men then your side have gained an advantage. It was not Busquets fault that Motta was already on a booking for instance.
As it turned out, the sending off did not swing the tie away
from Inter, who defended brilliantly (and rode their luck, Bojan’s goal should
have stood) to eliminate Barcelona. Busquets was caught on camera glancing up
from his ‘injury’ to the bench and it was this knowing wink that enraged
football fans. Didier Drogba has committed far more flagrant dives during his
time at Chelsea, yet his reputation is as a bullish goal-scorer rather than a ‘diver’.
His reaction in the quarter finals of the Champions League tie versus Napoli
(see video below) was appalling, but were largely glossed over by an English media
exultant to see an English side progress.
Drogba won the lot during his time at Chelsea and is clearly
an excellent striker. By contrast Busquets
aged 24 has won the following; thee La Liga’s, two Copa del Rey’s, two
Champions League titles, a European Championship and a World Cup, not bad for what has been a
four year career. Busquets deserves at least equal the praise that Drogba earned
during his time in England but it seems unlikely that the English media will
budge from their lazy stereotype of the Spanish midfielder.
He wasn’t part of the EURO 2008 squad but since coming into
the national set-up Spain have dominated the game and I would argue that his
presence in midfield is second only to Lionel Messi’s new deployment as the
false 9, as the fulcrum behind Barcelona’s form these past four years. It can
be no coincidence that since Busquets has come into both sides, they should
start to dominate at club and international level and hopefully the rangy
midfielder will earn respect from outside of Catalonia.
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