José Mari Bakero was one of the main names in Johan Cruyff’s Dream Team. The former midfielder arrived in Barça from Real Sociedad and went on to become an icon in one of the best teams ever. In a recent interview with Blaugranagram’s partner, Flashscore, Bakero has discussed his views on the current Barça team and also remembered his playing days with Cruyff.
“Every match Flick’s Barça plays is an adventure”, states the icon, when asked about the current Barça team, which he believes to be a perfect entertainment for football fans, “I think if you like football you have to turn on Barça and say ‘let’s see how many goals they score and how many they concede'”.
Bakero analyzes more in depth Flick’s Barça, “It’s a young Barça, a brave Barça, with a coach who has combined a bit of possession-based football, with homegrown players and with this idea of pressing so high up the pitch”, and he continues, “I think it’s the beginning of a long-term project. They’ve already said they’re lacking experienced players, which they’ll try to sign, and naturally, the younger players need to gradually gain that experience too”.
The former Spanish international is remembered for his goal in Kaiserslautern, which allowed Barça to stay alive in the Champions League of 1992, the first one the club ever won.”Barça had always been going through a bit of a negative phase, and I think that goal was where things started to turn around for everyone”, and he remembers what it meant with joy, “to go down in Barça’s history for a goal that even now the fans come to you to tell you that they remember where they were and what they were doing is just beautiful, because we play football because we love it, but we know we have to entertain, we have to make people feel something.”
