Newly debuted FC Barcelona number 4 Cesc Fàbregas (24) gave his first interview to Barça TV today. Many questions were answered about topics such as his drawn out transfer from Arsenal FC, why “Fàbregas” instead of “Cesc” appears on the back of his shirt, and if his arrival signals the forthcoming retirement of midfield maestro Xavi Hernández (31). Ultimately, for Fàbregas, “the last months I’ve been under a lot of pressure. Mentally it’s really tiring, but it finally happened and I’m very happy to be back at Barça.”
Fàbregas first spoke of his transfer which consumed many months and caused a lot of stress for both clubs. Surprisingly, he took some responsibility for all the angst by saying, “it is partly my fault for having left. Not in my wildest dreams had I imagined that one day I would play for the Barça first team. Not as a child, nor playing with Arsenal had I thought I’d live a day like Monday [his presentation].” His reason for leaving the Barcelona youth system in 2003 at the age of 16 was because “I saw that I didn’t have any chance of getting into the first team and Xavi was very young at that time. Also there was Andres and some of the youth players who were far ahead of me, and I saw that I was well behind them. I thought it was funny that an English team like Arsenal were asking about me, and I was amazed that the first team manager, Arsene Wenger, cut his holidays short to come and see me. I was 16 and playing for Barça juniors. The offer they made me was brutal.”
After being away from Barcelona for eight years, Fàbregas admitted that “the easiest thing would have been to stay at Arsenal. I’m the captain, playing every game. We are always in the Champions League, always fighting for titles. For all that, and the tough competition here, perhaps now might be the worst time to return to Barça. It’s going to be really tough to make the starting 11, but I needed a new challenge in my life. I thought I’d stagnated a bit, and needed a change of scenery. I needed a special motivation to bring the best out of myself.”
And so, he decided to come home, but some elements of that 16 year old still remain. “I think that Cesc has changed very little. I have improved in some ways, but I’ve always been willing to work hard, and that’s what’s helped me to improve every day. I am always keen to learn. It’s a mistake to think you know it all or you are better than others.” Fàbregas hopes his signing can be considered one important for the present and future of Barcelona, assuring “I’ll work hard to make it happen. I’m very young and the best years of my football career are beginning now, and in the future. I still have a lot to learn and hope to mature with Barça for many years to come.”
Memories of his time at Arsenal will always stay with him, though picking just one that stands out is “very complicated, but I guess I’ll remember my debut the most. It was the day when I least expected it. I thought I would make the squad and that’s it, and suddenly there I was in the starting 11, and my family was in the stands. It was a really spectacular day.” He’ll miss his adopted city London as well, but at least he still has his grandmother’s superior crayfish. “I’ll miss the London banter, but there’s nothing to compare with my grandmother’s crayfish. They are the best.”
Much of Fàbregas’ transfer was due to the hard work of the two club coaches, Arsène Wenger and Pep Guardiola. On Wenger, Fàbregas thinks “the image of Wenger here is a bit mistaken. If I’m here today it’s, at a high percentage, thanks to him. He makes the decisions, and told me I could come. It’s he who took the lead in the negotiations. Thanks to Wenger I am now a Barça player.” As for Guardiola, Fàbregas knows he was “the key. I know I can learn a lot from Pep and my teammates. I know they’ll bring the best out of me. On top of that there are many tactical and technical aspects that will make me better in this team.”
Having the opportunity to play for his childhood idol is a dream come true for Fàbregas, though he is sure he has not bettered Guardiola’s fast thinking on the pitch just yet. “Not at all! There are also two before me who think very fast, like Xavi and Andrés, and they’ve demonstrated that fact. They are 2 stars on and off the field. Pep has always been a reference for me, but now they are both the benchmark.”
It wasn’t only Guardiola’s playing skills that drew Fàbregas to him, it also had to do with a kind gesture Guardiola made involving a personally signed shirt that read “you’ll be the Barça number ’4′.” His “parents separated when I was 13 or 14. I went to play in a tournament in Valladolid or Italy, I don’t remember very well. I was a bit depressed about the separation. I was having a bad time, and my manager, Rodolf Borrell, a fantastic person, came and told me that he’d heard that he was going to give me this shirt. It’s a great coincidence, an anecdote. My father has kept the shirt. I’ll treasure it forever.”
Next, Fàbregas commented on his new teammates, though most he had played with before, including the ’87 generation of Barcelona’s youth squads which he, defender Gerard Piqué (24), and forward Lionel Messi (24) were part of. However, discussions of once playing for the first team together were scarce. “We played some very good championships with that team and we were very together. They were the best years of my life. But talking about it, no we didn’t. I don’t think that any of the three of us ever imagined that one day we’d play together in the first team.”
Fàbregas also thinks that playing with his two best friends Piqué and captain Carles Puyol (33) is “special. It’s what I really wanted. They are great friends and I have other great friends in this dressing room. But it’s also true that I lived with them via the national team in European Championships and World Cups. For me it will be a brutal experience, and they’ll certainly help to get the best out of me.” Though he hasn’t known Puyol as long as Piqué, he says, “for me Carles is an amazing person. Last year in the World Cup I was having a really bad time, and he was in my room every day encouraging me. And finally, I came on in the World Cup Final, it all ended well and he said to me ‘do you see that you have to have more confidence in yourself?’. He’s a captain on and off the field, due to his personality and his humility. I’ve met very few people like him in football.”
Not to worry, though the trio of terror now share a dressing room, it won’t mean the end of endless Twitter conversations and the “oh oh!! moc moooooc!” fans have come to love. “Certainly not. Now we’ll do it more often (laughs)!”
With the addition of Fàbregas, Barcelona’s midfield may be considered the best in the world, with the likes of Xavi, Andrés Iniesta (27), and Thiago Alcântara (20) just to name a few. But Fàbregas stays conservative, answering, “time will tell, depending on results and performances on the pitch. Thiago and myself have come this year, hopefully to offer more quality, and more competition. Together we’ll be a great group. It doesn’t matter whether or not it’s the best ever. The most important thing is that Barça continues performing at the top level, keeps winning titles, and that the fans enjoy it.”
All of this power in the midfield brings up concerns over playing time, but Fàbregas believes every player will find their place. “We are players that understand football the same way, yet we’re quite different. More than people think. Together we make a very good combination and at a footballing level that’s great, but we have to prove that on the pitch. We understand football the same way, but we all have different characteristics, which might just make us a very special group.”
Xavi lovers everywhere are also wary that Fàbregas will take his place, much like Xavi himself took over for Guardiola. Fàbregas, though, doesn’t know if he is Xavi’s heir. “I think that Xavi still has some years left in him, huh! He does things you wouldn’t believe! I haven’t come to retire Xavi. I came here to play with Xavi, to compete with Xavi, and to win with Xavi. What I’m saying about Xavi also goes for Andres and Thiago. I think altogether we make a very good group. I know what we’ll do. With the great group we are, we’ll do great things together.”
Will this great group of midfielders help aid Barcelona to continue playing their unique, flowing style and win titles? “We’ll try but it’ll be difficult. There are teams like Madrid, who have strengthened their team, who’ll want to beat us, and don’t only want to win the League but also want to win the Champions League. There’ll also be Manchester United, Inter, etc. up against us. We’ll have to be very careful, therefore, be very disciplined and work to maximum capacity. We can’t relax. If you relax too much that’s when the problems start.”
Fàbregas also finally answers the question of the name on the back of his shirt, and it’s not because some people have a hard time pronouncing it. “No, it’s not because of that. I let everyone call me what they want. I can’t do anything about it, there’s no remedy. At least I know they’re talking to me. It doesn’t matter. It’s a funny story and nothing more.” The real reason is he “would normally wear the shirt with Cesc, but it’s what I wanted and it’s not that I’m superstitious. In England I had to put Fabregas because the player’s surname has to be displayed and when I made my debut with the national team, they put Cesc on the back and things didn’t go so smoothly. But then, they changed it to Fabregas and we won the European Championships and World Cup. Barça were going to put Cesc on the shirt, but I thought ‘if everything has gone well with Fabregas, then we should continue with Fabregas and carry on winning trophies.”
The ‘One That Got Away’ is finally back where he belongs, where Barcelona “will get the best out of me.”
