THE BARCA BHOY
Larsson admits he kept the Catalan giants waiting when he left Celtic, but playing at the Nou Camp was a dream come true for the Swede — and now he hopes to help Koeman get them back to winning ways
THE first time Barcelona called, Henrik Larsson didn’t even come to the phone. Still, it all worked out pretty well in the end.
Delays in confirmation notwithstanding, then, there’s something about Larsson becoming an assistant to new Barca boss Ronald Koeman that just feels right.
The former Celtic great, who has repeatedly name-checked Koeman as one of the Johan Cruyff-era ‘Dream Team’ superstars he so admired as a youngster, famously made a typically ridiculous impact upon pitching up at the Nou Camp in the summer of 2004.
He helped the club end a fiveyear trophy drought — which rather puts the current crisis into perspective — by winning back-to-back La Liga titles.
And, of course, he came off the bench to turn the 2006 Champions League final in favour of Frank Rijkaard’s side.
Ask anyone, but perhaps especially Thierry Henry, about that match against Arsenal and they’ll tell you that Larsson won it for the Catalans.
The Swede, who played alongside veteran Koeman at Feyenoord, still speaks with genuine joy about that night in Paris.
Unsurprisingly, given his reputation for deep thinking, he also talks with authority about the ‘Barcelona way’ first put in place under Cruyff.
Yet, remarkably, his move from Celtic to Catalunya very nearly didn’t happen. Because he didn’t want to talk to them.
Recalling how he headed into the summer of 2004 with plenty of options following his decision to leave Celtic, Larsson explained that he had ‘something like 28 clubs’ chasing him as he travelled with Sweden to the European Championships in Portugal.
‘I didn’t want to sign anything before the Euros, so I decided to wait until after the finals,’ he revealed, in conversation with Robert Snodgrass and Kris Boyd on the Lockdown Tactics podcast.
‘But Barcelona called two days before we played Holland in the quarter-finals of the Euros.
‘My wife calls me up and says Barcelona wants me. I said: “Well, they have to wait — because I’m playing in the Euros and I want to be focused on that”.
‘My wife said: “Well, I don’t think they’re gonna wait for you, so if you want to do it, I think it’s better you give them an answer now”.
‘I told her: “OK, I want to do it. But you have to go over and negotiate the contract because I’m focused on this and can’t go anywhere”.
‘She got me a great contract, I must say. So I was happy when I signed for them.
‘Because growing up, one of the few teams you could watch playing was always Barcelona with Stoichkov, Romario, Laudrup, Koeman and all the players there — a fantastic team. To be able to sign for them, even though I never thought it would be possible, was a dream come true. ‘Obviously they were great players when I arrived. Xavi was good but became even better the next few years. ‘Andres Iniesta was a young kid, so was Lionel Messi. Carles Puyol, what you saw in games was what you saw in practice. ‘The team we had there — Edmilson, Rafa Marquez, Olegeur, Giovanni van Bronckhorst as well, Samuel Eto’o, Ludovic Giuly, just to name drop a few of them — was fantastic.
‘Ronaldinho, at the time I hadn’t seen any other player able to do the things he did with the ball.
‘He could score goals but his passes… you had to be on your toes all the time.
‘Because when you thought there was no way the ball was going to come, he would find a way to get it to you. I mean, he was just phenomenal.
‘The pressure he was under, he always delivered. And he did it with a big smile on his face. For me, he’s the best ever.’
The pressure Larsson talks about never changes at Barcelona.
If anything, things are so bleak at present that Koeman faces marginally — but only marginally — diminished expectations, compared to some of his predecessors.
After one season at the helm, Rijkaard was certainly under the hammer when he signed Larsson.
Since Louis van Gaal’s first spell at Barca ended in 2000, the club had burned through a series of head coaches — Llorenc Sera Ferrer, Carles Rexach, Van Gaal again and Radomir Antic — without success.
Now considered something of an unsung hero, the man who laid so many foundations for the glorious Pep Guardiola era, Rijkaard was a surprise appointment; his only coaching achievement at the time had been failure to avoid relegation with Sparta Rotterdam.
Yet Larsson immediately appreciated his management style, noting: ‘Frank steadied the ship. Barcelona had a tough time with previous managers being there.
‘But the quality of the players that Txiki Begiristain — who is now at Man City — brought in… I think Frank had something in that as well. But Txiki knew how to build a good team, a good squad.
‘Rijkaard was important because he got the second European Cup for the club.
‘And he did it with the way Barcelona like to play, in a 4-3-3. For me, it came in handy that I had
played in Feyenoord. When I came to Barcelona, it felt natural for me.
‘Mainly, Frank could keep some of the players happier. I don’t think everyone was happy, to be honest.
‘I wasn’t happy to sit on the bench, even though I knew from the beginning I wouldn’t start every game.
‘It’s tough because you have players who could play week in, week out. Keeping them happy was tough. But he did it his way.
‘And I never saw Frank angry in two years. Even if you could say he was a little bit angry, he didn’t really raise his voice.
‘He would be more saying: “Boys, come on, stop. Stop doing the back-heels and the flicks. The game is 0-0. Wait until it’s 3-0”.
‘That’s about as angry as he got in those days. He was just a calm dude. The way he looks is the way he was.
‘And I think that was very important for that dressing room, to be able to express themselves, which is very important as a player.
‘The Champions League Final was so special. Obviously being in one big final in Seville with Celtic, it was not a nice feeling to lose — and I still don’t enjoy talking about that game.
‘But being able to win the final in Paris was great, winning the biggest club medal you can win.
‘I knew there wouldn’t be another opportunity, at that stage of my career.
‘I didn’t even have a drink that night because I wanted to remember it all, I wanted it to be fresh. I can still remember almost everything. I’m getting a bit older so some things are getting away from me!
‘The way we played football at the time, I don’t think many other clubs played the way we did.’
Larsson’s inclusion in the Koeman era gives him a chance, of course, to boost a coaching career with only one dream destination for many Celtic fans.
‘I want to see how far I can go,’ he said. ‘For me the ambition is to get out there and be part of the big games again, the European nights, winning leagues.’
Present predicament notwithstanding, he’s got the chance to achieve most of that in Barcelona.