Barcelona captain – ‘Losing Lionel Messi was like starting again from zero’

Barcelona might be trying to manage their way through a financial crisis, but they are also a little over two years down the line from arguably the most traumatic departure in their history – that of Lionel Messi. In addition, the final vestiges of their last great era under Luis Enrique have departed, with Gerard Pique, Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets all leaving in the past year or so.

Except two. Sergi Roberto and Marc-Andre ter Stegen are the last remaining members of their 2015 Champions League-winning side, and are now the captains of the current edition. The former explained on B3TTer podcast that his exit was as traumatic as it seemed from the outside.

“Lionel Messi is the best player in history, and in the history of the club. When he left it was a total shock. All of the success for the club, in recent years, was with Lionel Messi there being the best player in the world. So when he left, and he isn’t there with you, it was basically like the club started from zero again.”

Xavi Hernandez managed to construct a winning side last season, controlling matches and hiding their weaknesses, but the Blaugrana are yet to dominate teams as they once did with Messi in the side, even if they were doing it less often in his final years. Robert Lewandowski arrived to much fanfare the previous summer, but is struggling to perform to the same level as Messi in front of goal, and it has left Barcelona looking somewhat toothless over the past 12 months.