Pep Guardiola once insisted that he would be perfectly happy to have a team entirely made up of midfielders.
When celebrating the greatest ever centre-circle artisans to grace Camp Nou therefore it felt fitting to go with eleven, not the usual 10.
But who would go in nets from this glorious collection of ballers and pass-masters? In truth, it’s a redundant question because this team would only cede possession at kick-off.
Bernd Schuster
The Blonde Angel deigned to showcase his magnificence for Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid for nigh-on 15 years, only failing to do so when a manager slighted him. This could take many forms, from a coach daring to query his work ethic to simply breathing in an annoying manner.
The outspoken German racked up a trio of top three Ballon d’Or finishes and was twice voted La Liga’s best overseas player.
Diego Maradona
It took a world record sum of £5m to lure Boca Juniors’ golden boy to Catalonia and he wasted little time in exhibiting his rare genius.
In training, his team-mates were humbled by his ridiculous ability while a brilliant individual effort against Real Madrid brought the Bernabeu to their feet, an act that occurs once in a generation. Only Ronaldinho and Iniesta have been granted that honour since from the fans of Barca’s archest of rivals.
Yet Diego’s two years in Spain was littered with controversies and frustrations, not least an ankle injury sustained from Andoni Goikoetxea – the ‘Butcher of Bilbao’ – that still shocks today for its utter brutality.
Pep Guardiola
For six sumptuous seasons, Guardiola was the pivot for Johan Cruyff’s ‘Dream Team’, a creation that was Total Football writ large, minus any compromise.
In a similar fashion to Rodri, many years later at Manchester City, who has also come to epitomise the difficult role, it fell upon Guardiola to anticipate danger, and elsewhere link a series of moving parts via pinpoint passes. He was the order amidst ordered chaos and he performed this task immaculately.
Barcelona were crowned kings of Europe during this period while four consecutive league titles speaks of their domestic dominance.
Sergio Busquets
For several seasons across the late-2000s and beyond, Barcelona were an unstoppable force, playing a style of football that the world’s elite could not lay a glove on. All we could do, collectively, as a planet, was sit back and admire.
Guardiola of course conducted these symphonies while Messi was a one-man string section. It was Busquets who was percussion, dictating the tempo, underpinning it all.
One of the most decorated players in the modern age, the deep-lying playmaker harvested nine La Liga title wins and three Champions League triumphs before moving to the MLS.
Luis Suarez
Over half a century before a toothy Uruguayan lit up Camp Nou with his attacking chops his Spanish namesake reigned supreme, a creative of outstanding pedigree who could be just as impactful when sitting deep and pulling the strings.
Suarez bagged 141 goals from 253 outings for Blaugrana and was integral to Spain’s 1964 Euro success. Not only did he win the Ballon d’Or in 1960 but he went on to claim Silver and Bronze Balls a further three times.
A giant of his day.
Michael Laudrup
The difference-maker in Cruyff’s Dream Team, the ‘Prince of Denmark’ was class personified, an attacking midfielder whose mazy runs were like spun silk while his footballing-intelligence was quite simply on another level.
Like Schuster, Laudrup tainted his legacy at the club by joining bitter rivals Real Madrid, a consequence of a fall-out with Cruyff.
Up to that point though, Barca hoovered up silverware on a seasonal basis, an unwavering favourite in the football betting.
Xavi
Schooled in pass-and-move from joining La Masia, aged 11, Xavi Hernandez embodied the best of his club’s values for 17 years, endlessly – and effortlessly – finding space and recycling possession; always looking for that probing pass, or to get on the end of someone else’s.
A thoroughly modern exponent of midfield excellence, Xavi’s honours roll is as long as the Llobregat river.
Josep Samitier
Many credit Samitier with inventing box-to-box midfielding but though his defensive attributes were of the highest calibre in pre-war Spain it’s his prolific goalscoring that really places him front and centre in Barcelona’s pantheon.
In 174 appearances for Blaugrana, ‘The Surrealist’ bagged 133 times and only four other players for the club can top that.
Andres Iniesta
Another graduate of the club’s famed La Masia academy, Iniesta once modestly summed up his life’s work as, ‘Receive, pass, offer, receive, pass, offer’.
To strip back his magisterial football to such basics inflames the senses, but then again, can’t the same neat trick be used for every esteemed great? The modus operandi for Picasso, it could be said, was ‘Dab, apply, survey, dab, apply, survey’.
Like his fellow countryman, Pablo, the playmaker’s magic lied in the implementation of these simple traits. His unerring appreciation of space. His dip of a shoulder. His vision and threaded passes.
The World Cup winner was a masterpiece of a footballer.
Ivan Rakitic
Though their time in Catalonia over-lapped by a season, the Croatian was signed principally as Xavi’s successor, an obligation many would have shied from.
Rakitic however accepted the baton in typically assured fashion, cherishing possession as he did at Sevilla while measuring his slide-rule passes like a draughtsman.
Barcelona’s dominance slipped a little prior to his arrival but they were soon back heading the sports betting when he found his groove and ran the show each and every weekend.
He guided them to five La Liga triumphs in his six years there.
Johan Cruyff
The only thing greater than Cruyff’s fierce intelligence, coupled with a refusal to accept mediocrity, from himself or others, was his substantial talent. He was the ultimate street footballer but with the mind of a learned academic.
All of which made him a force of nature, of a stature not seen before in the game, or arguably since.
He was a king, a god, and though he is mainly known for his forward play, his craftsmanship in the middle of the park was easily as exemplary as any spectacular goal he bestowed to his legion of devotees.
