Number of characters|1804 characters
Recommended reading time|5 minutes
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In the summer of 2008, the 20-year-old Sergio Busquets was just an ordinary substitute for Barcelona's B team. In the eyes of Luis Enrique, then manager of the B team, he was slow and clumsy, running like a poorly coordinated giraffe, wanting to play in the team? There are no doors! It was Pep Guardiola, who had just been promoted to Barca's first-team manager at the time, who saved Sergio Busquets' career.
Pep Guardiola had previously led Sergio Busquets in the B team, who saw in him a shadow of his playing era – a slow-paced, grossly underrated midfielder. Gua Shuai knows that professional football pays so much attention to a player's physical qualities that it will bury an extremely powerful football brain. In September of that year, Busquets made his Barça first-team debut against Atletico Santander. Twenty-two months later, he won the greatest glory of a footballer's life: the 2010 World Cup.
At Euro 2021 and the 2022 World Cup after that, the Spanish manager, Luis Enrique, who disliked Busquets at the time, personally handed over the captain's armband to the only remaining player in the 2010 World Cup winning team, the only remaining midfield master of the golden age of Spanish football, Sergio Busquets.
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Busquets' father, Carles, was a less reliable goalkeeper in the Barcelona team in the 90s, the kind of strange goalkeeper whose skills on his feet outweigh his skills. Busquets grew up in a working-class suburb of Barcelona until Barca drafted him into the team when he was 16.
Players who move slowly are likely to think extremely fast. Sergio Busquets is one of those rare players who performs as well off the ball as he does with the ball, and because of Busquets, a new type of back has emerged in world football: pivotal midfielder, Spanish for "Pivote". Barca's data analysts can't give Sergio Busquets any game advice, instead learning football principles and laws from his decisions on the pitch.
Behind every pass Busquets hides a piece of his thoughts: whether he personally dribbles the ball to shred the opponent's defense, or he disrupts the opponent's formation structure by passing the ball back and forth. His signature sound (passing and breaking) always makes it easy to escape the oppression of his opponents. With a one-foot pass, he led the team to unhurriedly form forward pressing. In the process, he always re-sketched the most reasonable passing triangle on the field, and he was that apex.
At the same time, he organizes the team to press and predicts in advance in which area the opponent will concede. He's a hidden genius who makes football easier – because he's always in the right place, in the right direction, and he can even use fouls correctly and reasonably.
"He is both intellectual, street smart, and a great hybrid that is almost impossible to beat." Spanish football writer Santiago Segurola wrote. "All his moral flaws are good for the sport of football." Arsenal legend manager Arsene Wenger said.
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But success hasn't changed him, and Busquets still plays with his neighbors in his old neighborhood, uses social networks, barely speaks, and when he does, tactical thinking forces him to give key opinions in words. He is a dark, silent, violent and unsmiling player, but he rarely scores or assists, and even passes over 10 meters in midfield, so he can never become an idol that fans are crazy after.
But his peers respected and even feared him. Liverpool legend Steve Gerrard said playing against Busquets was a "real nightmare": "At the end of the game, you don't want to steal his ball, because not only can't you grab it, it's difficult to even get close to him. If you leave your position and press him forward, he will cut in behind you in turn - and play against him, you won't play for 90 minutes because your physical strength has long been exhausted by him. ”
All in all, Sergio Busquets is the ideal type of player in the eyes of coaches. Guardiola has said, "If I can become a player again, I want to play like Sergio Busquets." ”
How important is Sergio Busquets to the Spanish national team? At Euro 2021, Luis Enrique reserved a place for the coronavirus-infected Busquets without using a full squad quota until almost the end of the group stage. "I choose to wait for Busquets." He insisted.
Luis Enrique's wait proved to be worth it. Spain, who were embarrassed to draw after being unable to push the ball forward in the first two games of the group stage, bloodied Slovakia 5-0 in the first match of Busquets' return. After the match, Sergio Busquets was named the best of the match. "I don't know if I'll be able to play again, but the other teams are strong in the group stage..." At this point, Busquets had nothing more to say.
After that, against Croatia, he became the best on the spot again; Against Switzerland he controlled the pace but missed a penalty; Against Italy, he overtook Germany's Toni Kroos to become the player with the most successful passes since the 2010 World Series.
This is Sergio Busquets of Spain, a great midfielder, a master within a square meter. In Cruyfff's words: a walking brain like Sergio Busquets can perfectly defend a table, but if he had to defend the entire restaurant, he would be out of place. So the key to beating Spain and Barca is to extend the stadium into an entire restaurant and support Sergio Busquets.
In recent years, Liverpool and Bayern have successively made Barca experience a big defeat by mobilizing Barda to run the whole game.
With the table belonging to Busquets, the lights went out, and people realized that his lights had illuminated the restaurant of Spanish football in this way.