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Bernd Schuster is perhaps the only man on Earth capable of understanding what Lionel Messi is feeling as he tries to leave the Barcelona, your only home in football, back. This German, born in Ausburg, lived a similar story in the 1980s, although shorter and much more controversial.
Schuster left the Catalan national team after eight seasons and four titles to defend the archrival Real Madrid, an exchange that caused many idols to be removed from Mount Olympus Blaugrana. Years later he went to the Atlético de Madrid.
To better understand this story, it is worth giving a little more context.
Schuster was considered one of the great players of the 80s, although he did not attend the 1982 World Cup due to a knee fracture caused by Andoni Goikoetxea, from Athletic Bilbao, the same one that would damage Diego Maradona a year later (it was no coincidence that he was known as the “butcher of Bilbao”). He also did not attend the 1986 and 1990 World Cups because he had given up defending West Germany over disagreements with his teammates.
A skilled midfielder, he left Cologne at 19 to defend Barcelona. It was a time of lean cows. Even so, it helped break a ten-year fast without the title of Spain Championship, he won two Cups of the Copa do Rei and one of the Recopa de Europa.
But the trajectory was almost always in conflict with the leadership and with President Josep Lluis Núñez, who participated in the campaign in favor of his election. Unfulfilled promises of contract improvements and internal and media harassment after the 1985/86 Champions Cup runner-up pissed him off.
Schuster did not even participate in the penalty shoot-out against Romania’s Steaua Bucharest in Seville because he had been substituted. Still it was one of the most loaded.
History records that after being replaced, he left the stadium, took a taxi to the hotel, where he saw his team lose the final. He lasted two more seasons and, tired of unfulfilled promises and unreasonable demands, he left Barça for Real Madrid.
Professional coach since 1997, having even worked for Real in 1997/98, he gave a long interview to the Spanish newspaper “El País” and gave his opinion on the Messi case.
“It is more of an episode than what we already experience in the big clubs. It often seems like the big stars have to go through the back door. It has happened to many players, not only to Barcelona. The case of Messi is more curious because he is a local player. You can’t do more than you did. Growing up there, professionalizing myself, being successful, being the best player in the world for many years, winning everything. The big problem is always how it ends. How do you change your mood and end your career elsewhere?
“I totally understand it. Messi’s idea was not to leave Barça, but over time you will realize that football is like that, he does not forgive. Soccer is a result, keep winning and sometimes soccer is not fair and then you decide to go elsewhere. Some time ago I said publicly that Messi deserved that the club gave him a competitive team for another two or three years. He is still two or three years old. […] Last year he saw that this was not going to change, that it could not be fixed. He wasn’t going to get better and that’s why he had to make that decision. Bayern’s win was their final point at Barcelona, ”he replied next.
“Before the pandemic, it was clear that this Barça could not beat anyone other than a title like the Champions League. He didn’t have the strength to do that. After the pandemic, nothing got better. Messi said that. You can see that it hasn’t changed. And in this case I would not blame the coach. It is the team that completed a cycle and must be renewed. The player feels when something is finished, when inside it is not the same as a few years ago. Leo decided not to continue and finish his career elsewhere. Punctuation. This is the time for that, ”he added.
Messi informed Barcelona on August 25 that he does not wish to remain in the team and has since sought a free and amicable termination. The president of Barça, Josep Maria Bartomeu, does not admit to having lost the great idol of the club and has been playing hard.
A meeting this Tuesday (2) could define an agreement for the departure of the ace. Manchester City, Paris-Saint-Germain and Inter Milan appear as interested clubs.
