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THE FOOTBALLER AS ARTIST

Real Madrid v Barcelona, El Clásico, is widely recognised as the biggest club football match of all. Their next meeting is even bigger than usual. It’s not just that they dominate La Liga. Never have two clubs from the same country had such a grip on the world’s best players – six of the top seven in last year’s Ballon d’Or. And Madrid need to atone for their humiliation on a barmy evening last May, when Barcelona won 6-2 at the Bernabéu, as if toying with a mouse.

That night Andrés Iniesta flirted with perfection. Iniesta is an attacking midfielder with forensic vision, geometric passing, devastating pace, serene certainty in possession, and the ability to get even better in big games. After he coolly dismantled Manchester United in last year’s Champions League final, Wayne Rooney called him the best player in the world. Iniesta, only 25, is a footballer-artist, whereas Real’s Cristiano Ronaldo, also 25, is a footballer-athlete. Each symbolises his club: Iniesta humble and homegrown, Ronaldo expensive and narcissistic. And ahead lies the World Cup, in which Ronaldo will be playing for a team of relative outsiders, Portugal, while Iniesta takes his place for Spain, the favourites.

Real Madrid v Barcelona  Bernabéu Stadium, Madrid, April 10th

~ ROB SMYTH
 

Picture Credit: Gerard Reyes (via Flickr)