It’s not easy playing against Barcelona in the Champions League. They are a club with a lot of history.
Because of my job, I get a lot of opportunity to grab a few days here and there in many cool cities for press commitments, magazine shoots and premieres – Barcelona, Madrid, Rome, Paris, Stockholm, New York, Berlin. I always try to get to a gallery or museum if there’s time.
Ronaldinho is another special player, probably amongst the most talented players I have worked with. At Barcelona, he was outstanding.
Living in Barcelona, I have my own little ghetto utopia. There are 3,000 ghost towns in Spain, and I’ve used the images of them a lot in my backdrops for my solo spoken-word stuff. The ghost towns could be from two buildings to 40 – things died out, or there were plagues, the roads don’t lead there, whatever.
Barcelona and Real Madrid wingers, these are the big players at the big clubs and you have to watch them. They are at a top level. I’m not going to say they inspire me, but I take things from them.
The dream of everyone is playing in Spain, Madrid, or Barcelona.
I love Spanish cities, particularly Barcelona, Madrid and Palma, which has the most amazing cathedral that I once went to for a wedding.
Barcelona is the best club in the world; My team-mates are Ousmane Dembele, Philippe Coutinho, Luis Suarez, or King Lionel Messi.
I’m not here to substitute Neymar. Barcelona needed a player in my position, and I’m here to help.
The Barcelona players have reached an amazing mutual understanding that they can play with their eyes closed.
A team like Barcelona always has targets, and that’s quite normal.
My favourite team was always Barcelona. When I was young, I went to see them, my first ever big game. Jari Litmanen was playing there at the time. In Finland, Litmanen is a big hero for all of us.
Playing for Barcelona’s academy was a very important time for me and my career, as I learned a great deal here.
The best player I ever played with is probably Cesc Fabregas. I only got to play with him for a year before he went back to Barcelona, but I learned so much from him – the way he knew what he was going to do with the ball before he got it and his passing – and he scored goals.
I’m always bragging, always laughing with my Spain team-mates at Barcelona, saying I’ll take 30 per cent possession and two goals – a win is a win. It’s football.
You don’t have to be too clever to know that if Barcelona loaned me to another team, it’s because they have little interest in me.
Who does not want to coach Barcelona?
Coutinho is a great player, he will help Barcelona to reach their goals.
I never thought about money; otherwise, I would have left aged 26 when Real Madrid and Barcelona wanted me.
I’d like to manage in England at some point. My wife wouldn’t like the weather; she’s from Barcelona and likes the sun. It would depend on the team and the football they played.
The interest of a great club like Barcelona is certainly flattering. That is confirmation that I am doing a good job.
Barcelona is my home. It’s impossible to say that I wouldn’t return.
It’s always difficult to face Barcelona. They always have top-quality players.
‘The Wine of Summer’ is a beautiful film about love lost and found, and the complexities of life while discovering who you are. It was filmed primarily in and around Barcelona, and the imagery is breathtaking.
We know the Premier League is a spectacular league. We would like to play there, but if you take all the positives and all the negatives, it’s very difficult to leave Barcelona. If you feel at home and you’re from Barcelona it’s difficult to change.
I don’t speak Spanish. I understand enough of it, having spent some time running Telemundo, and I put in a lot of time in Spain during the Barcelona Olympics. But I don’t pretend to speak Spanish, and I don’t want anyone to think that I can.
If you want to measure yourself with Barcelona, Chelsea and Manchester United, you, as Bayern Munich, need a philosophy. That must be the aim of the club.
Barcelona are special in the way they play. They’re a machine.
The Christmas market at the Barcelona Cathedral sells all kinds of things for your Nativity scene. It will also give you a good idea of Catalan culture.
I still have to work on my cardio because I get tired very quickly. At Barcelona, I have a better lifestyle. At Dortmund, I didn’t have a great lifestyle, and I didn’t get injured, so it’s not that.
One day I won’t play for Barcelona. I’ll go and play somewhere else, and I’m sure I’ll do so as a central midfielder. That’s what I’ll try to do because it’s the position I like.
In my childhood, I always played as Barcelona on the PlayStation.
Marseilles, Barcelona, Trieste, Istanbul – each romances the Mediterranean in its own fashion, mostly by embracing the sea in sweeping C-shaped bays that date back to antiquity.
It’s unbelievable. I changed the way Barcelona played. Now, Spain have had to change.
I like a lot of sports. Especially football – it’s my favourite sport. My uncle played football in Barcelona for nine years and played for Spain in three World Cups.
Guardiola was a very special coach for me, the first when I was at Barcelona. He is a great coach, a lovely person, and I have very good memories of that time, but I would have liked to have had a full year with him.
You’d have a hard time finding anything better than Barcelona for food, as far as being a hub. Given a choice between Barcelona and San Sebastian to die in, I’d probably want to die in San Sebastian.
The entire world knows what I have with Barcelona and what Barcelona have with Ronald Koeman, so if I could become Barcelona coach one day, I would be delighted.
I’ll never play in Barcelona, because in Spain I am a Real Madrid supporter.
England really is the birthplace, the heart and soul of football. If Barcelona had Liverpool’s fans, or Arsenal’s, or United’s, we’d have won 20 Champions Leagues, hahaha!
I don’t think people can imagine a Liverpool team without Gerrard. It is like Raul at Real Madrid and Puyol at Barcelona. They are a rare breed, these types of players.
Like so many of the players, I started at La Masia at the age of 11. I can’t ever imagine not playing for Barcelona, let alone not playing soccer for a career. I don’t ever want to play anywhere else.
I’m a professional, so any match against Barcelona in the Champions League is special to me.
One that I like and I think could play here is Coutinho. He has the style of Barcelona.
In December 2005 I had a very good opportunity to test Renault’s world championship-winning car at Barcelona, and after 30 laps I was setting really good times, so I know what it’s like to drive a really good car.
Having Leo Messi and Barcelona is good for La Liga – it’s a real delight.
I left Barcelona because I was brave. Neymar arrived and I played less. These things happen in football.
I’d love to play with Ajax against Barcelona.
If you are Cesc, going to Barcelona, he will make more money, more sponsorship, and he is going home. What did Arsenal do to keep him at the club? Absolutely nothing. Now the fans say he is not loyal. When you leave Arsenal, you become a traitor, regardless of what you have done.
There was an option to sign for Barcelona and other teams before I moved to Madrid.
It was a great time in my career, playing for Barcelona with the best players in the world, in the best team in the world at that moment. It was amazing for me. I can always say to anyone that I played at Barcelona with Messi, with Xavi, with Iniesta, with Pedro, with Pique. And we won a lot of trophies.
You can’t compare Barcelona and Bayern Munich to Manchester City.
Xavi playing 750 games for Barcelona is a lot.
I am very happy that a great club like Barcelona is interested in me, as that is priceless.
What I have learnt from my time at Barcelona is the invisible work that goes on off the pitch. It’s about the fine details.
The news of the open military help to Franco from Hitler and Mussolini, and the heroic resistance of the people of Madrid, Barcelona and the big cities fired a widespread wish to help the Republic and its people.
At Barcelona, I had the best players ever, and they helped me to be a successful manager.
The majority of supporters admire Barcelona because of their fantastic football and for the type of players they have.
You have to have something in your head to understand the Barcelona play. You have to adapt as quickly as possible.
I signed a five-year contract with Barcelona. I’ll be here for a long time.
I think that everyone expects Xavi to be a coach, and he has the profile to be at Barcelona or wherever he is.
I still have the newspapers of my first match at Barcelona. It was a disaster. We lost 2-0 and everybody was questioning my arrival.
I’m very satisfied with everything I have done with both Barcelona and Brazil.
Barcelona, Real Madrid, City – there are many teams you’d want to play against.
Luis Enrique has shown at Barcelona that he is a great coach with many qualities and I believe he would be good for any club, but I do not know him a lot on a personal level.
I am a believer in passing the ball on the ground, I was lucky to be part of teams like that at Arsenal, with the French national team and with Monaco and at Barcelona. I know you can win in other ways, but I believe that is the way football should be played.
