El Clasico: The people who made it the biggest match in soccer

Joan Laporta, Barcelona president (2003-2010, 2021-): To tell you the truth… I wanted to surprise people [by appointing] a person that thoroughly knew and had participated in Cruyff’s philosophy, which incorporates the genuine style of football which our model is based on. Straight away, Mourinho’s people called me and were saying “I suppose all this about you wanting Guardiola is not true and that you want Mourinho.” I told them: “Look, Mourinho’s a great professional, but I’ve decided on Guardiola.”

The battles between Guardiola and Mourinho would be the stuff of legend: their first Clasico meeting ended 5-0 to Barcelona, and while Mourinho would only win one game against Barcelona during the four years that the two managers went head to head in Spain — a 1-0 victory in the 2011 Copa del Rey final — their battles would be legend.

Laporta: “The only question [about Guardiola] was his lack of experience, but I wasn’t worried about that. I consulted with Johan [Cruyff] and Txiki [Begiristain], telling them that I was thinking Pep could be the new Barca coach. They told me he was absolutely ready, so I had a meeting with Pep and told him I wanted him to be manager of the first team. Do you know what he said to me? “You haven’t got the balls.”

Iniesta: My idols were Michael Laudrup and Pep Guardiola, and [being managed by Guardiola] added motivation. The experiences I had with him were really awesome, because of what he meant to me. He had a brutal conviction and confidence in our possibilities, both in what we were doing and how we did it. He’s a coach that knows how to get 200% out of every player and has very clear ideas. That made us believe from the first minute, and we were able to carry out what he wanted.

Altimira: Guardiola’s great virtue was that he listened to everyone and later he would decide himself, but from the start he would listen.

Zubizarreta: A clear example of [Guardiola’s approach] was playing with a false nine. Before going to the Bernabeu in 2009, he decided to play without a fixed forward, which rendered obsolete all the systems Madrid had prepared to win the game. The plan worked amazingly, Barcelona won 6-2 and that game will be remembered forever.

Zubizarreta: The Clasicos with Mourinho generated a lot of tension. Madrid appointed him to try and put a stop to the way Barcelona were playing and winning after he’d knocked them out of the Champions League in 2010 at the semifinal stage [as Inter Milan manager]. After the 5-0 Barca win at the end of November 2010, things changed. It was as if Madrid had understood that the difference [between the teams] was massive and they started to plan for the games in their own way. It generated a lot of tension and there were some unpleasant moments.

Sergio Ramos holds the unfortunate LaLiga record of most red cards for a single player (26), and five of those were picked up in matches against Barcelona, making him even more of a Real Madrid legend. In a particularly nasty Clasico in 2009, with Real losing 5-0 in injury time, he went in hard on Messi to at least get something for his team that day. He then fought with two Barca players on his way to the dressing room.

Eduardo Iturralde Gonzalez, LaLiga referee (1995-2012) that sent off Sergio Ramos: It was one of those you can “smell.” I saw him running towards Messi and I thought “he’s going to whack him.” You can’t just know the rules, you have to know the game. If I hadn’t “smelt” that, I wouldn’t have been in the right place. Then there was this melee. Ramos confronts Puyol, Xavi is there, the two goalkeepers come over. Everyone’s confronting each other. I tried to get in the middle of it, tried break it all up, but it was impossible: there were arms everywhere.

The only one that’s not in the middle of it all is Iniesta. I say to him “bloody hell, what are you lot like?” And he says: “‘ah, you love it.;”

Xavi, on the 2011 Champions League Clasico: Mourinho was provoking us so much, over and over again, that finally we senior players really wanted a response from Guardiola. When we watched his prematch press conference [Guardiola gave an explosive diatribe against Mourinho], we loved it and applauded him to his seat in the restaurant when he came back to the team hotel. Pep told us to ‘sit down and stop all that.”

Lionel Messi vs. Cristiano Ronaldo

It’s impossible to discuss the Clasico, or the two teams, without mentioning Messi and Ronaldo. Their head-to-head rivalry for nearly a decade in LaLiga was energizing not just for the Clasico, but for all of football. Between them, they won 11 of the last 12 Ballons d’Or and when one was up and winning awards, the other had to be down. Messi edged the goals (26 in 43 Clasicos, compared to Ronaldo’s 18 in 29) and the number of LaLiga titles during Ronaldo’s time in Madrid (Messi had six, Ronaldo just two), but Ronaldo and Real did claim four Champions League crowns in five years. Regardless of your preference, the duo were equally dominant in this feud.

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Calderon: Without doubt Messi is an exceptional player. As football fans we’ve been lucky to live in the era of Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo together, even more so when the two of them were playing in Spain… [When Messi met Real Madrid in March 2007] it was a frenetic match, with constant changes on the scoreboard. That game gave us the boost to win the league. It was something of a miracle because we were nine or 10 points behind with eight games left, and little by little we fought back.

That game was key. When I arrived as president, we had changed 18 players to change the feeling around the club, which hadn’t won anything for three years. That game showed the players that they were capable of winning, of coming back, of competing with Barcelona. Messi, though, was sensational. The whole stadium, and the presidential box, was vibrating. It’s one of those games you remember forever… Obviously when Real Madrid play, I’ve always wanted my club to win, but as a fan I’ve always admired great players. Messi has been one of them.

Josep Maria Minguella, soccer agent: We brought Messi to Barcelona after some sensational scouting work from some of my collaborators in Rosario [Argentina]. The story is well known, how everything happened, the problems we had closing the move to Barcelona, how in the final moment Carles Rexach saved the deal by famously signing the napkin at the Pompeya tennis club in the city.

The first time I saw Cristiano Ronaldo was when I was travelling with Javier Subirats, who was working for Valencia at the time, to watch an U18 or U19 game between Portugal and England. I went because Portugal have always brought through really good players, but without knowing anyone properly. It wasn’t like these days back then. Now you know everything before you even travel.

We watched the game and a few players stood out, although none of them were well known. After the game, we went to the Portugal hotel and were dining with their travelling party. There were a lot of players there who weren’t known at the time but would become very popular, among them Thiago, Ricardo Quaresma and Cristiano Ronaldo. We were introduced and we talked, but we left it there.

As the weeks passed, with the focus now back on club football, I learned that Sporting Lisbon were going to play a friendly against Manchester United and Sir Alex Ferguson was quicker than anyone else and ended up signing Cristiano.

Iniesta: For me, Messi is a guarantee of success, or of getting close to success just by having him on the pitch. He makes the difference in every game. For me, he is the No.1.

Calderon: It was really hard to sign Ronaldo at Real Madrid, because obviously United didn’t want to let him go. He’s a unique player. Together with Messi at the time he was the best, and as president I couldn’t miss the opportunity to sign him. We did it, and at the time the figure looked very high. At that time nobody had paid 94 million euros for a player. But we had the money… I always said money has to be on the pitch, not in the bank. I managed to double the TV rights contract, increase revenues, and we were able to do it.

Signing him was extraordinary and he gave us everything. He gave us trophies for 9 years. He won individual awards, Ballons d’Or… and Madrid won four Champions Leagues. He managed to show that he’s an exceptional player and in Clasicos he didn’t miss the opportunity to do it. Great players always show it in big games. He did it in the ones he played in, as Messi did, and many others have.

When Cristiano arrived, he was already a number one. It wasn’t easy (to imagine what he would achieve) because the football world is very competitive nowadays. We have to compete with clubs that belong to big companies, millionaires… The hope when we signed him was that he would respond to expectations and he did that and then some. It was much more than what we hoped for. His career, in the nine years he was here, it will be very difficult for that to be matched again.

Minguella: [Messi and Ronaldo] have left the bar sky high. It’s almost unreachable for the rest. They have given, and continue to give, everything for football. They love the sport so much and that’s made their teammates and their rivals better, too.

LaLiga, and the rest of the world, has been lucky to share this era with them. It’s difficult to imagine another rivalry between two players at the very top of the game lasting over 15 years. Messi has become a player that creates, assists and also scores a lot of goals, something which is not normal, while Cristiano, I must say, participates less in the game now, but is still a top-class finisher and an insatiable goal scorer.

Karim Benzema, Real Madrid forward (2009- ): When you play with a guy [like Ronaldo] who scored 50 or 60 goals a season, of course, you are at the service of the team, but you are at the service of the player too because he is someone who scored a lot. I had to adapt, I adapted. [It feels strange that neither are involved in the Clasico any more] but before them, there was Zidane, there was Ronaldinho, there was Ronaldo, there was Samuel Eto’o.

The names change, but Real Madrid vs. Barcelona is still Real Madrid vs. Barcelona, regardless of the players.

Santiago Bernabeu: The man who made Real Madrid

It’s fair to say that without Santiago Bernabeu, there is no Real Madrid. Not only do they play in the stadium he built and that bears his name, but his remarkable success both as a player (68 goals over 12 seasons, after making his first-team debut aged 17) and as team president (over 70 major titles in 35 years) is unprecedented.

He turned Real Madrid into a global force through conviction and courage, building a stadium that could hold over 100,000 (the club averaged barely 15 percent of that at the time), establishing state-of-the-art training facilities as well as fostering an atmosphere of success and hard work. He also played a key role in the formation of the European Cup — now known as the Champions League — and oversaw his side’s early domination as they won it six times, including five in a row, in the 1950s and 1960s.

Amancio “Amaro” Varela, Real Madrid defender (1962-76), Real Madrid manager (1984-85): He always insisted on how important it was to be humble, simple. We couldn’t go round saying we were the best, chests all puffed out, even if we were. Humility, humility, humility. He was someone you had so much respect for.

Ignacio Zoco, Real Madrid midfielder (1962-1974): He would look after you and your family. You weren’t just a footballer.

Jose “Pirri” Martinez Sanchez, Real Madrid midfielder (1964-1980): If I was in hospital, he would come with me and talk for hours and hours. He was a father figure. When he’d turn up at the team hotel, players would say: ‘Don Santiago is here…’ and you’d run to the bathroom to make sure you were clean shaven. He wanted Real Madrid to be exemplary in every way. He kept everyone in line.

Jorge Valdano, Real Madrid forward (1984-1987), Real Madrid manager (1994-1996): He was ahead of his time, taking risks that were truly historic. In an economically depressed Spain, he constructed a stadium for 120,000 people and then filled it by seducing the greatest stars of the era. Real Madrid is as big as the titles it has won and the stars it has seduced into joining.

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Vicente del Bosque, Real Madrid midfielder (1968-1984), Real Madrid manager (1999-2003): Bernabeu was the moral and spiritual leader of the club. He came in as an errand boy and he left almost six decades later as the director. He was close to us, patriarchal, paternalist. He knew everyone.

Ramon Calderon, Real Madrid president (2006-2009): I think he was a pioneer in everything. He was a visionary. He helped found the European Cup together with L’Equipe. He was the first to bring in foreign players… he had a clear vision of what football was going to be and how football should be… he put the foundations in place for the team to be what it is today.

Jose Santamaria, Real Madrid defender (1957-1966): He didn’t allow any scandal. When we won the fifth European Cup, the next day we arrived in Madrid and we had to arrive in a ‘normal’ condition. The night before, we couldn’t have a party. We were only allowed to drink orange juice and eat some biscuits!

Johan Cruyff: The iconoclast who got Barcelona to the top (at Real Madrid’s expense)

When the Dutch forward arrived at Barcelona in 1973, he found a club in disarray and notably lagging their rivals. With no money to spend and little way of organically closing the gap to Real Madrid, who had won eight of the last 10 LaLiga titles at the time, Cruyff arrived for a record fee (approximately $2 million) and led Barcelona to LaLiga glory in his first season, breaking their 13-year drought. But it was as Barcelona manager that he made the biggest impact, tilting the Clasico rivalry back in their favor.

The club — mirroring their current plight — was in debt and full of rot when Cruyff took the manager’s job in 1988, but he quickly established the club’s “Dream Team,” era, which yielded four straight LaLiga titles and four straight European finals, including a Champions League title (1991).

“The influence of Johan Cruyff was huge,” Guardiola once said. “He changed the mentality of Barcelona. His influence is not comparable. He is the most influential person in the world of football in the past 50, 60 years. Nobody can compare with him.”

Txiki Begiristain, Barcelona forward (1988-95), Barcelona director of football (2003-2010): We all felt the pressure and the need to win, but when you saw Cruyff you felt like he could overcome everything. He took it all in his stride. We thought that his ideas were fine in Holland ,but would be impossible to impose in Spain. But he had no doubts. He convinced us that with his style we could win titles.

When things are difficult you tend to become defensive, but he didn’t have that mentality: his first option was always to attack more… He wasn’t scared of anything. Who knows if he was worried beneath the surface, but he never, ever transmitted panic.

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Eusebio Sacristan, Barcelona midfielder (1988-1995), Barcelona assistant manager (2003-2008): Players [want to] run everywhere and Johan would be like: no, stop. Don’t invade the space your teammate is occupying, don’t let a defender mark both of you — separate. His idea was ‘I have technical players, let’s put them in positions in where the opponent can’t take the ball off them. Let’s always have a line of passes open, let’s open up the wingers so that the defenders who want to stop them have to spread right across the pitch. It was different, vanguard, revolutionary, exciting… what can I say? For me, I found my religion and I am faithful to it. It was my football, it suited me. My faith was unshakeable.

Carles Rexach, Barcelona forward (1965-1981), Barcelona assistant coach (1987-1996): It was a revolution in football and people didn’t know how to deal with it. Back then it was all: run, jump, fight. With him, it was: no, we have to play better.

Michael Laudrup, Barcelona forward (1989-1994), Real Madrid forward (1994-1996): Cruyff is the only coach that when he told you things tactically, you thought ‘oh, of course.’ Of course, but… 90% of coaches didn’t say that. He saw it clearly, the logic. He was a revolution.

Zubizarreta: The managers have their ideas and work on counteracting everything they think the opposition coach has in their head. Cruyff — like Pep Guardiola now, for example — devised specific things for games they considered important, things that, if they went well, could be used in the future.

Cruyff, of course, also tried things that went well, but also other things that did not go quite as planned. But that’s something that can happen. The important thing is believing in what you do and following through on it.

Sacristan: I’ve seen Messi and Maradona, but someone who had the vision and analysis like Johan, and has been able to communicate it like Johan? No… I don’t know everyone, but of the people I have met — his ideas, concepts, details, nuance, idea of the game — I have had the privilege and honour to have been very close to someone who could communicate it like him.

Players who crossed the Clasico divide

Over 30 players have represented both teams of the Clasico divide, but few have made their mark like this select group.

Alfredo DiStefano was the star of Real’s best era despite that he was “meant” to play for Barcelona. They believed they’d agreed a deal to bring the striker over from Colombian side Millionarios, but the Spanish FA refused to recognize the deal, which opened the door for Real Madrid to swoop in and agree a deal of their own. Eventually, and despite cries of conspiracy, he would represent Real Madrid.

Eight LaLiga titles, five European Cups and two Ballons d’Or later, it’s tempting to wonder what could have been.

Gaspart: Di Stefano signed for Barca, and Madrid took him away. There was a contract that wasn’t very clear and Madrid were opportunists at that moment, so he went there. And Madrid won the European Cups and did what they did with Di Stefano… That was also a very dirty operation, more political than anything else in that moment. I remember it even as a young kid.

Darcy “Canario” Silveira dos Santos, Real Madrid forward (1959-1962): I coincided with both Pele and Di Stefano [as a player], and they were the best. But Alfredo was more complete. He was the number one.

Juan Santisteban, Real Madrid midfielder (1955-1961, 1963-64), Real Madrid assistant manager (1979-1981, 1982-1984): I don’t think there is a player who has been born or will be born who can match him. Physically, he was incredible. I saw him save a goal inside his own penalty area once — against Real Sociedad, I think — and in the same move, end up at the other end and score. He was a beast. No one could stop him. You’ve never seen anyone like him, and you never will either.

Calderon: Di Stefano used to say something that I always repeat when I hear players, coaches or presidents complaining. “A great team — and Madrid are greater than anyone — can never complain about referees, injuries or bad luck.” It’s a very important principle in football, and in sport in general. A small team or a medium-sized team can complain, but Real Madrid never can.

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Then there was Michael Laudrup, who played for both teams in the 1990s. He’s the only player to have won 5-0 in a Clasico both for Barcelona and Madrid, and he did it within the space of a calendar year. The 5-0 scoreline became infamous with fans and players of either side, who’d taunt the others with an upheld hand, fingers and thumb splayed to signify a five goal win: “la Manita.”

Laudrup: I never used the “Manita,” I don’t like it. Because, without being arrogant, I’ve lost 5-0 and I don’t like it because it’s humiliating. I like to win, but it’s like when you make a nutmeg, I only ever used it to go past my opponent — never to humiliate him. So I didn’t like the 5-0 for what it became.

The only sweet story was a few years later, as manager of Getafe, I was in an airport and a man was there with his 10-year-old son — meaning the kid was born pretty much when I left football — and the dad asks me for a picture before he turns to his son and says: ‘This man was a very good footballer’. And the boy just says to his dad: “Cinco-zero, cinco-zero! (“five nil, five nil!”)

The ensuing decade was filled with players who crossed the divide in either direction, from Brazilian star Ronaldo (Barcelona 1996-1997, Real Madrid 2002-2007) to Spain manager Luis Enrique (Real Madrid 1991-1996, Barcelona 1996-2004), but the move of Portuguese playmaker Luis Figo from Barcelona to Real Madrid in 2000 was the one that left a mark.

Gaspart: What happened with Figo was an illegal and dirty act on Madrid’s part. Florentino Perez, who is a friend of mine and someone I respect, played a dirty trick on me; it was a really dirty move. I’ve explained it many times, there’s no need to explain it more.

The first game Madrid played at Camp Nou with Figo, it all boiled over — they had to suspend the game for 15 minutes to calm the supporters down. I was president then. That’s normal here and there. Also Luis Enrique, a Real Madrid player who signed for Barca, was considered a “traitor” for coming here. But Enrique was very different to Figo, because he moved in a normal way. His contract ended [with one club] and he signed [with the other].

Figo was very different. Everything that winds up Madrid, or that Madrid can do to wind up Barca, is welcome as long as it’s legal. And in the Figo case, that legality did not exist. But now it’s in the past, it’s forgotten. I can’t keep remembering it forever.

In his first game back at Barcelona after making the move, on Nov. 23, 2002, the fans couldn’t hide their disgust, booing him throughout the game and hurling objects onto the pitch every time he went over to take a corner. The most memorable image involved a pig’s head that emerged from the stands late in the first half. Figo’s move added an extra layer of bile to the rivalry.

Michel Salgado, Real Madrid defender (1999-2009): By the second or third corner I turned to Luís Figo and said ‘Forget it, mate. You’re on your own’. I used to offer Luís the chance to take the short corner, drawing up close to him near the touchline, but not this time. Missiles were raining down from the stands: coins, a knife, a glass whiskey bottle. Best to keep away. Short corners? No thanks.

Gaspart: They had to suspend the game with the possibility of even calling it off completely. I went down to tell the referee to be careful because if he suspends the game, maybe it makes things worse. Let the fans calm down a bit and then restart the match. It was suspended for around 15 minutes. It restarted and ended in a draw, but they had to suspend it not for the atmosphere, but for the objects that were thrown on to the pitch. The referee felt they couldn’t carry on playing, and that it could lead to more problems.

I can’t applaud it because I don’t agree with throwing things onto the pitch, but the fans were riled up because they felt this player had betrayed us. The way he did it, especially to go to our biggest rival, Real Madrid. But there have also been cases in history of players from Real Madrid ending up at Barcelona and similar atmospheres at their ground.