Bartomeu Reflects on One of His Mistakes as President

Former Barcelona president, Josep Maria Bartomeu, may be out of the spotlight, but he’s still keeping an eye on Barça’s current affairs. With Porto holding presidential elections, Andoni Zubizarreta, former sporting director of FC Barcelona, has been chosen by one of the candidates, André Villas-Boas, to lead the technical department of the Portuguese club.

Bartomeu praises Zubizarreta’s role and explains that the emergence of players like Ansu Fati and Lamine Yamal is thanks to the method implemented by the Basque upon his arrival at the club. “When he arrived, he introduced the concept we called Succession Lines. La Masia players were monitored to make it to the first team. That work doesn’t yield immediate results, but Ansu Fati, Lamine Yamal, or Pau Cubarsí arrived because of what Zubi created.”

Bartomeu also highlights another success of Zubizarreta in extending Pep Guardiola’s winning cycle. “He convinced Tito Vilanova to take over when Guardiola left. And he also supported Luis Enrique years later. He brought in Neymar, ter Stegen, Luis Suárez. We had Messi, but he alone doesn’t win titles. Zubi was the architect of our second treble in history.”