This article was first published on the official WeChat of "FC Barcelona"
As we know, on January 3, Victor Valdés emptied social media to say goodbye to his career.
Depending on his age, retiring at this point is a bit of a waste – Buffon is still in front of Juve's gate, and Cassi can also go to the other end of Iberia to eat. His lifelong enemies are still alive and well.
Of course, the way he retired is more fun than when he retired: the move of emptying the social account to retire is unprecedented, and it is likely that there will be no one after him.
This routine of forgetting the past by drinking Meng Po soup is very fresh for us, but for Valdés, it seems familiar ——
When Gamba first debuted, he was also a good-looking being, and dancing three or two times during training could cause a fan to scream. Finally, one day, "Have you guys had enough?" "Shaving a hair—saying goodbye to one's former self in an unusual way—has, to some extent, become Valdés' signature.
But Valdés on the pitch is much more complicated. In fact, Valdés' ability to save is not bad, winning the Zamora Award in the 04-05 season – for comparison, Cassie's first Zamora Award was not until 2008.
At that time, Rijkaard's Barcelona was not so dominant, and many times, Barcelona's champions were protected by Valdés's reaction.
After the Champions League final in 2005-06, Henry, who has always been a cross-handed knife, said: "After this game, I will hate Valdés, he made me not even have the opportunity to score. ”
In that game, the ten gunners were desperate, but they still did not lose in front of Valdés.
After this final, Valdés became what Rijkaard called "the man who held me in the position of coach" and became a hero of Catalonia.
At that time, the world's impression of him was basically stereotyped as "a super-responsive rescue beast". If Guardiola hadn't come, everything seemed destined to go as usual.
The tall, skinny man, who used to be able to only bark in the youth squad, took the barca manager's seat in the 08-09 season. Before his ass was hot, he gave his first order: Our attack should start with the goalkeeper! When these words are put to others, they can only think about life.
But for Valdés, the shackles that had been imprisoned in him for a long time were also opened.
For a long time, Valdés's template was Kahn - he liked the habit of directing his teammates in front of him, and often fought with the referee to the end of the bloody nature, the Catalan media looked at it. Guardiola arrives, and Valdés can't do Kahn second anymore because he's going to be the first Valdés.
In terms of the goalkeeper's playing habits, Valdés seems to be very subversive - his goal line reaction is the world's top, but after the opening of the Dream Three Dynasty, he is the one who is the least like the goalkeeper.
Traditional goalkeepers such as Buffon usually have the habit of deploying two or three steps in front of the goal - this can prevent all long passes from hanging out of the goal, moderately compress the opponent's shooting angle, and reduce the distance between the goal and the goal to prevent the opponent from flying outside the sky.
At the same time, the ball likes to be one-sided, the choice of attack is cautious, the football is to be regarded as a hot potato, and it will be kicked out when it reaches the foot.
But Valdés's habit – or the habit after the 08-09 season – is to set up a small penalty area, like an eight-clawed spider, forming a net in front of the goal, rushing along the spider silk before the opponent will come in, controlling the ball, and passing the ball out steadily. And, unlike the goalkeepers who inherit the DNA of the ancient gods, Valdés likes to play in the middle of the small penalty area when he plays the ball.
At that time, most goalkeepers liked to play the ball on one side of the goal, which made it convenient for the goalkeeper to play the ball, but suffered from their own defenders and midfielders who were chased and blocked by the other side: Didn't you just play from one side, is it equivalent to telling the opponent where to press?
The terrible thing about Valdés, and the most underrated, is that his shots always start from the center of the small penalty area, and the pass is almost no dead end, almost cutting off the possibility of the opponent to apply pressure through one side.
Of course, many times, his position is too far ahead, it is easy to be hanged; his ball is often problematic, and the mistakes during the dream three are enough to compile a collection. But in those days when he and Barcelona were together, he was still one of the flaws.
After the mistake, the moment he held his head in frustration, and the self-care cheer afterwards, have become part of history. In a big club like Barcelona, every mistake will be infinitely magnified, but the pressure brought by these mistakes has also made Valdés.
'Whenever I stand in front of the goal, I tighten every nerve and look particularly anxious because I'm so afraid of losing.
This anxiety about losing, and the hunger for victory, constitute a restless Valdés: behind a vote of teammates, Valdés is not willing to be lonely, sometimes rushing to the front of the big box, sometimes secretly observing in front of the goal, and then calling on friends to lock the opponent's attack.
His defender partners, the ones who knew him best, were somehow perfect with him. Just look at the rear humerus of The Dream Three, such as Abidal, Puyol, Pique, and Alves, without exception, they are not masters of the card line. Many times, all Valdés has to do is cooperate with his teammates, weave a big net, and net everything up.
Looking back, Valdés has been in many places since then, but we always feel that this kid is still the goalkeeper of the cosmos team, still a Catalan.
If you think about it, it's no wonder. You know, this boy entered La Masia at the age of eight and was a Cruyffist through and through. When he first entered La Masia, he didn't like to play as a goalkeeper: "This job makes it impossible for me to play well with my teammates!" ”
His job is to be a goalkeeper, but his mind is more than that, many times.
'At the weekend, you naturally envy your team-mates, they play a lot of fun because they know they're playing a real football game and it's hard for me to get that happiness.'
From the time he left Barca, he traveled to many places, from Manchester United, to Standard Liège, to Middlesbrough, the red on his body has never changed, but the blue on his body, with those restless, subversive, happy, and revolutionary things, all stayed in Barcelona.
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