Emmanuel Petit looked back on his whirlwind stint at Barça. A not very fruitful passage, but which left its mark.
Xavi Hernandez, FC Barcelona coach, did not hesitate to say that he did not feel the same pressure within the club as elsewhere. Yet his former teammate Emmanuel Petit, who spent a year alongside Xavi at the Camp Nou, told Football España that the main difference was political rather than pressure on the pitch.
Petit had a 16-year career, spent entirely at the highest level, between Monaco, Arsenal, Barcelona and Chelsea. On a footballing level, Petit believes that the big clubs all experience similar levels of pressure, or at least that the players feel them in the same way.
“The pressure is the same in all the big clubs. It’s the same thing in England and Spain. The only thing different about Barcelona is that they are a very political club, with a huge identity in Spain.
The club ensures that its best players are aware of the cultural identity of the club, which also gives it a political aspect.
“The Catalans are not Castilians. As soon as you arrive, you are told that you must speak Catalan and not Castilian. You must understand the tradition of Catalonia and not that of Spain. You can see the huge difference, with millions of supporters, and still for me one of the best clubs in the world. But there is this difference, it’s very political.”
“It’s like you’re playing for a country“, he smiles.
