Farewell to La Masia, a point between illusion and longing

Mid 50's. Several men working around a table. One is the architect Francesc Mitjans Miró, whom the Barcelona Football Club has commissioned project the new stadium, specifically, is a request of his cousin Francesc Miron-Sans, president of the Catalan club. Along with Mitjans, among others, Josep Soteras i Lorenzo García Barbon Mauri and his assistants. Apply thoroughly to study the construction and manufacture a model of a field that, until now, never admitted surnames.

They talk and share their views under the roof of an old farmhouse acquired by the club with the land where the new field would be lifted. Can they all dreamed of making this model that were just beginning to design, that great small-scale stadium was still a sketch, a real temple Blaugrana. But no one imagined then that the ground beneath their feet, La Masia de Can Planes on which engendered the future Camp Nou was to be the cradle of their future players, let alone several world champions with Barcelona and the Spanish and how pibe!, a child with growth problems Argentine, with just over 20 years would be considered the best player on the planet.

Last week, prostrate at the foot of La Masia, sitting in one of the stone walls to its entry there, glistening sixteen trophies. All achieved over the last year by the various club teams, the most famous, of course, the Pep Team, although there were the basketball, football, handball and hockey. A smash hit, one more record for the entity. I close my eyes and I see a club employee, intimately, sacándoles brightness, they had to be groomed for the occasion were to be protagonists in a tribute, in fact, far beyond the pride, it was goodbye. The house I grew up, among many others, the likes of Caldera, Carrasco, Guardiola, Milla or sentence, and similarly to the current Golden Generation, that of Xavi, Puyol, Piqué, Iniesta, Messi etc., has closed its doors as a residence training for youth players.

He wrote the Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus (first century BC) that "history is a philosophy of examples," the FC Barcelona, ​​with its farmhouse, has given us and continues to give us examples of a strong philosophy that delicious dazzled soccer almost everyone there has given her first steps over the past three decades. Twenty centuries later, said the Catalan writer Llorenç Villalonga that "this is a point between illusion and longing," as if to draw that line at that moment, had guessed William Love, a piece of the Dream Team , excited as he delivered his parting words: "The feeling I had to go through this door that I embraced," said current head coach of football at club, safe at the same time that this move is the beginning of cycle even better. Indeed, talk of moving Barça all that warmth, the family atmosphere of La Masia, Sant Joan Despi, the training center Oriol Tort, where from now you will develop new promises.

In January, sadly, died Ángel Pedraza, the first player made his debut at La Masia with the first team in 1980. Now, five months after his loss, this school inimitable talent moves physically, though the old building remains, with the same spirit as always, to receive institutional events. At these meetings, probably, be presumed in front of the fortune-treasure-these walls kept for years as if it were a legend. Although everyone knows it's true. It will then pride that makes men of tomorrow look back, look back to the past, the years that building adjacent to the Camp Nou, and up-awaited play a productive role for Barcelona. And they shudder at the thought that back in 1966 when La Masia was merely the headquarters of the club, nobody could invent a fable fantasize even like a myth that all could be considered credible.

Photo | Nou Camp as seen through the fence the Masian / photostream / "> Flickr by Arria Belli
Video | La Masia closes after signing the best year ever on YouTube by EFE

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