Guardian - 22 January 2018, 16:35 (+ 2308 days 0 hours and 15 minutes) Eurofootball
Pablo Machín and his players have transformed the club and, with it, the town. This never used to be a football place focused on its own team. It is nowIt took Lionel Messi two seconds to work out what was going on, Pablo Maffeo says, and not very much longer for him to say sorry; he was just doing what he’d been told to do. It was September, FC Barcelona’s first ever visit to Montilivi in primera, and it wasn’t a whole lot of fun for either of them. Everywhere Messi went, Maffeo went too. There was no getting rid of him, so Messi wandered about, mostly staying out the way, and struck up conversation. He asked how old he was – 20 – and whether he’d come from Man City – yes, he had – until eventually the Girona wing-back was withdrawn. As Maffeo sat on the bench, cameras caught him talking to team-mates, a grin appearing on his face. “You know what he said?” he smiled. “‘Playing like this is shit’.”Well, there’s a first time for everything. And there’s a last time, too. After the game – which Girona lost 3-0 but in which Messi, already on nine league goals just six weeks into the season, hadn’t scored – Maffeo’s parents were approached outside the ground, their boy suddenly famous. “The most important thing is that they made friends,” his mum said. What, his dad was asked, did you make of your son following Messi round everywhere? The response was rapid. “And what makes you think it wasn’t Messi following him,” he replied. Continue reading...