It’s almost time for Kylian Mbappé to be debated in the Congress of Deputies. It could happen tomorrow, if the French striker decides to show off against Xavi’s team tonight, although the pre-election tension that is being experienced right now in Catalonia could advise caution even among those who usually celebrate goals against Barça in the privacy. The desire to finally see the Frenchman dressed in white is palpable. And what better appetizer, now on the verge of the definitive summer, than to see the boy of your dreams clinging to the foot of your rival’s bed like a nightmare, a harmless preview of all the good things that are to come. And expensive? Will it be expensive? There are adjectives that, in the Madrid of maná, are conjugated as verbs and nothing more: hala Madrid.
Whether a footballer is expensive or cheap determines, at this moment, his true capacity to lead the new project of a Barça that needs to renew its hopes at least once a season. The club can no longer undertake signings like those of the French striker. Nor can he make a mistake, again, as a French striker, which in itself is a great advance because anyone could be afraid that with money in his pocket someone would start saying “Lamine Yamal must be protected”, and then Another more experienced, more expensive, more depressing footballer would arrive to share minutes with the one from Rocafonda and fill the culé heart with false hopes. The Barça of the future happens through him, through Gavi and through Pau Cubarsí, among many other reasons because there is not a sad euro in the box and that always promotes the virtue of focusing sporting projects on the tangible, not so much on the covetable.
But the Barça of the future also goes through games like today’s, which can be many different doors at the same time. To begin with, and if no one goes crazy, it will be the first contact of the future stars with the true Marvel universe, well what if it is not the PSG of Qatar and Luis Enrique. And it could also be confirmation that Barça is in the presence of what other clubs would be willing to buy at whatever price when it germinates: the unleashed talent of two kids who still can’t drive a utility vehicle, but will try to take Barça to Champions League semi-finals, something like getting your driving license by parking the Titanic. What should never be for them is a grave. Or a hole in which the distrust caused by defeats sinks expectations and, therefore, hope. Xavi knows a lot about that, who was Lamine and Cubarsi when neither of them were even born.
In an entity that did not suffer from the anxiety disorder that usually marks Blaugrana life, today’s match would be seen as a party in which to exhibit to the world the true nature of the Barça DNA, a club where the game is above the Results and the path matter more than the goal. A team that would arrive in Paris with significant casualties, but with faith. And with pride. Because, how can a Barça fan not feel proud seeing Mbappé harassed by the new La Masia weirdos? That will be talked about tomorrow everywhere if Barça plays what it should and PSG gets entangled, once again, in what it doesn’t know.
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