David Ginola opened his heart this Thursday evening. The former star of Paris Saint-Germain, invited to the set of Canal Champions Club, engaged in the most significant episodes of his career. And when the discussion died on his regrets, the former winger surprised by evoking not a failed match or an injury, but a much more painful episode that still haunts him today.
Ginola: “My biggest regret is Barça”
“El Magnifico” never digested his failed transfer to FC Barcelona in 1995. “It was not done because of the Bosman stop. Cruyff wanted at all costs to take me, but they already had seven foreigners ”, he confides with bitterness. The story could have been beautiful: Johan Cruyff, his childhood idol, claimed it after his dazzling performance at the Parc des Princes in the quarterfinals of the Champions League against this same Barça.
Negotiations dragged all summer 1995. Ginola waited, repelling other offers until mid-July in the hope that Stoichkov and Hagi leave the Catalan club. “I waited, expected and pushed back until mid-July. But afterwards, I had to make a decision ”, he recalls. Emotion is still reflected when he talks about his meeting with Cruyff : “We went to play golf. It was the pretext to meet. It was impressive, because it was still my youth idol. »»
David Ginola's heartbreaking confidence on his failed transfer to Barça.
A failed meeting with the story
This aborted transfer represents much more than a simple missed opportunity. Ginola could have evolved under the orders of the master of total football, the one whose poster adorned his child's room. “It would have been a very good experience to work with this coach. The margin of progression would have been different from England ”he regrets. The cruel football timing: the Bosman judgment occurred a few months later, in November 1995.
This injury remains gaping. “It's still playing at Barça and it was the best team in the world with Milan. And it's near six months ”, he lets go with a hint of nostalgia. Ginola knows that this transfer could have changed the course of her career, perhaps even open to him the doors of the French team. But as he concedes with philosophy: “On the other hand, I would not have been a legend at Saint James Park. »»
