BARCELONA: Barcelona gamers from the boys’s and ladies’s groups lapped up affection from hundreds of supporters within the town’s streets on Monday afternoon to have fun their twin league titles. Xavi Hernandez’s aspect beat Espanyol on Sunday to win the membership’s twenty seventh league name and primary since 2019, whilst Barca’s girls’s group earned their fourth consecutive Liga F win on the finish of April. The gamers rode in two open-top buses, heading from Camp Nou to the town’s Arc de Triomf monument 5 miles away, the streets covered with jubilant supporters regardless of the specter of rain.
Defender Ronald Araujo used to be draped in a Uruguayan flag, whilst L. a. Liga’s peak scorer Robert Lewandowski, dressed in shades and a Barcelona shawl, waved to enthusiasts. Trainer Xavi, whose title used to be chanted steadily, threw down a can of beer to overjoyed thirsty enthusiasts under. Avid gamers from each side wore t-shirts proclaiming “the league is ours, the long run too”. Crowds greater because the buses headed alongside their course, to the principle sq., Plaza Catalunya, after which on against the Arc.
“You’ll see the enthusiasts are very thinking about it and clearly we’re too,” goalkeeper Marc-Andre Ter Stegen instructed membership tv. “It’s a pleasure to percentage this with them and feature them nearer than ever.” In entrance of the 2 gamers’ buses, some other bus pumping out pop songs to set the temper led the best way, reducing thru streets full of blue and pink smoke. Feeling amongst supporters used to be certain, as anticipated all over a parade, even if they be expecting extra to return from each groups in Europe.
Barcelona’s girls have reached the Champions League ultimate, the place they’re going to face Wolfsburg in Eindhoven on June 3, whilst the boys have been knocked out of the Champions League within the team degree for the second one season working. “We are saying to the enthusiasts that we’re celebrating as of late, however that we’ve got numerous our minds concerned about Eindhoven and that we can give the whole thing and extra to cause them to proud,” two time girls’s Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas instructed Barca TV.
Fanatics stood on balconies waving flags, whilst others clambered on peak of bus forestall shelters to get a greater view. “I’m positive of my hope for the boys’s group (subsequent season), for them to present a just right account of themselves in Europe,” supporter Laura Nieto, 37, from close by Terrassa instructed AFP. “That they don’t do a nasty activity towards giant warring parties, which is what’s been going down. And for the ladies, for them to proceed like this – which is unstoppable.”
Messi chants
Some supporters chanted Paris Saint-Germain playmaker Lionel Messi’s title, hopeful that Barcelona can convey him “house” this summer season on the finish of his contract in France. Others have been extra torn through the theory of Messi returning, regardless of president Joan Laporta pledging the membership would “do the whole thing” to signal him. “On one hand I might love it as a result of it could convey again numerous pleasure,” mentioned Anabel Sanz, 16. “However at the different, I believe now not, as a result of it could imply rebuilding the group once more and ultimately, that will harm us, it could now not be just right.”
Messi, who turns 36 in June, is Barcelona’s all-time peak goalscorer, and mentioned a tearful good-bye to the membership in 2021 when they may now not have the funds for to resume his contract. “Barca have to succeed in the semi-finals and finals of the Champions League a minimum of, and win extra,” mentioned Josep Martinez, 60. “It’s tough (to grasp if Messi will have to go back), now not as a result of his age. It’s about why he comes, what’s the function of him coming? “Is he coming right here to struggle for his position? … For the group, I don’t know if it’s the most efficient factor.”— AFP