Sergio Busquets
Recently I've been watching a lot of videos from FC Barcelona's games during their 2010–2011 seasons, which many football fans regard as the highest quality of football that the sport has ever seen, and I am one of those people. That team was the embodiment of the beautiful game. Everything from passing to dribbling, shooting, and most importantly ball possession, was done to perfection.
It almost feels like watching chess. The ball is almost always under the team's control, and that was coach Pep Guardiola's plan all along. If your enemy doesn't have the ball, they cannot score. As put in the title of the documentary about his campaign with the team, one should "Take the Ball, Pass the Ball."
Out of all the incredible players on that team, which included Messi, David Villa, Iniesta, and Xavi (all World Cup winners), there is one player who I believe deserves a lot more recognition: Sergio Busquets. A Barcelona veteran active on the team from 2008 to 2023, not including his youth career, Busquets was a fundamental part of the team's game strategy, but because of his placement on the pitch as a defensive midfielder, he was often not seen as the main attraction. He still is one of the most well-known players of the last 20 years, but compared to other Barca stars of that era, it's fair to say that Busquets was not who everyone would be talking about after a game had ended.
Below: Can you spot the difference between the images? Notice who's always in the center.
Busquets' position was as midfielder as it gets. If the team was a busy airport, he would be the control tower. His task was very simple: redistribute the ball from areas of high enemy pressure or low potential to areas of opportunity, and he would do so with extreme class and ease.
Unlike Messi's runs, Busquets' highlights would only last around 1–5 seconds at a time, where all he did was receive the ball, dodge an enemy player, and pass the ball. Despite his height, Busquets would rarely get into direct body contact with enemy players to keep the ball. In fact, his style of play was all about avoiding that. It seemed like he was the most energy-efficient player on the team, and he'd make only the necessary movements to ensure his mission was accomplished. Naturally, that resulted in some of the most magical moments I've ever watched.
Seeing his quick legwork and quick thinking feels like watching a magic show, where both you and the enemy player are left baffled. It is elegance in its purest form. Coming to this topic as a designer, I think that a good analogy is that Busquets is the "less is more" of football—one of the most resourceful players there has ever been.
I am writing this because I feel like he is often not talked about enough, although he deserves to be, and his legacy draws parallels in real life, such as in situations where the ones who do the silent work end up a little overlooked despite being fundamental to the completion of an important goal. There is nothing wrong with looking up to iconic people who have that image of being a true hero, but sometimes it's important to remember that the hero's assistant may be just as important.
