The barrio boy who hit the big time

IF Pep Guardiola is a student of Johann Cruyff, then Sergio Busquets is a student of Guardiola. The defensive midfielder, who divides opinion outside Spain, played under Guardiola in his one season as Barça’s B team boss in 2007-08.

“It was a great experience because we’d been relegated to Tercer (the fourth level),” says Busquets. “It’s not like now, when the team are in Segunda A (second level). Pep was manager and we’d go to little Catalan towns where everyone wants to shoot you down because you played for Barca. I remember one game at Rapitenca in a tiny stadium in the south of Catalonia near the Ebro Delta. The people were shouting all kinds of abuse at us, as were the other players. Most of us were 18, 19, playing against 34-year-old men who wished they’d played for Barca.

“It didn’t intimidate me. I don’t mind that part of the game. I quite like an aggressive match — I’m from a barrio so I was not scared playing down there, but some of the other players were nervous after the first challenges went in.”