Barcelona’s Clown Car Era Just Struck Gold

This summer’s most important deal between a soccer player and club is not a transfer.

Sure, a contract might cost an eye-watering $270 million, but the truth is that Lamine Yamal, on his current trajectory, is worth every penny to FC Barcelona.

And signing the world’s most exciting young player for the long term is of incalculable significance.

The remarkable thing about the six-year deal is that the young Catalan will still have his peak years ahead of him when it expires.

Barely old enough to obtain basic legal rights in most countries, Yamal has become the key player for club and country, shining on the biggest stages, from international finals to Champions League semis.

As Barcelona sporting director Deco told local media outlet RAC1, this was the club’s most important deal.

“The best signing to do in summer? Lamine Yamal signing a new contract,” he said. “We are on the right track with it. I want him to win a Ballon d’Or with Barca.”

His words were echoed by Barcelona forward Pau Victor in an interview with Diario Sport.

“We all know about his quality, what he brings. He is the best signing that can be made, he is a differential player and with the age he is, nothing like him has ever been seen,” he said.

“Being able to enjoy it for more years is special. It’s very easy to play with him, he’s very balanced, three players can come to him and he won’t lose the ball.

“It’s a joy to play with him, also with Raphinha or Lewandowski. Obviously I see him winning the Ballon d’Or, I hope he, Raphinha or Pedri win it.”

That Barcelona might have three players in contention for soccer’s most prestigious individual honor is remarkable considering where the club was just a year ago.

Club legend Xavi Hernandez looked stressed as he headed out the exit door, having overseen a trophy-less season and sparse improvement on a side that looked far from Europe’s elite.

His replacement, Hansi Flick, arrived to find an unbalanced squad that lacked a clear identity.

But it is to the German’s immense credit that in just one season, he has transformed the team into double winners who were mere minutes from a Champions League final.

As the club said in a statement announcing Flick’s contract renewal last week: “Hansi Flick has made Barca fans happy in his first season for many reasons: for the belief he has given to the team, for the epic comebacks and for the trophies.

“The excitement that the German has brought to the club in his first year in charge has made FC Barcelona a feared rival once again in Europe.”

However, whether Joan Laporta or the Barcelona hierarchy deserves the credit for this remarkable turnaround is another matter.

Clown Car FC Barcalona Win Big

Laporta’s strategy has always been a ‘speculate to accumulate’ model, where big-name transfers are chased to create both the interest and revenue needed to cover the substantial outlays.

Since his return as club president five years ago, FC Barcelona has embarked on a series of ill-fated transfer splurges funded by mortgaging future revenues.

Due to the talent turnover, the club repeatedly struggled to comply with La Liga’s strict financial rules and faced embarrassing problems registering players.

But amid such chaos, La Masia, the club’s legendary academy, has delivered a crop of players worthy of challenging the Pep Guardiola or Johann Cruyff eras of Barcelona.

This generation of talent could become legendary from Pedri and Gavi to Yamal and Pau Cubarsí.

For Barcelona to have uncovered such riches while pursuing a dangerous strategy is somewhat surreal.

It brings to mind a famous line that Mark Zuckerberg reportedly used to describe rival social network Twitter, which was flourishing despite some strange decision-making.

“[Twitter is] such a mess,” the Facebook founder once told close friends, “it’s as if they drove a clown car into a gold mine and fell in.”

It’s an analogy that perfectly describes the situation at Barcelona, which has at least realized its greatest assets lie in its homegrown stars and focuses on contract renewals.

As Deco said in the RAI interview: “We can’t talk too much about other players because, to me, it’s much more important to improve with what we already have at the club.

“The key of the project is to give stability to that same group of players.”

Laporta made big bets on future success that will eat into Barcelona’s revenue should things not go as planned.

And it will be fascinating to see whether the club can deliver on the promise it has shown this year.

For all the excitement the side generated in its exhilarating 4-3 and 3-3 clashes with Inter Milan in the Champions League, a more streetwise Barcelona wouldn’t have let such chaos reign and would have controlled the games better.

The apparent explanation is an increased need for experience among the ranks.

But hiring the correct players to provide that is not easy. It must certainly be better than the scattergun approach that has defined the Laporta 2.0 era so far.

Because, well, it’s only really possible to crash a clown car into a gold mine once.