Former Barça player Mario Abrante has made some surprising statements about what happened during his time there.
In the summer of 2003, Barcelona unleashed a revolution within the team. The Blaugrana club needed to inspire the fans and find their way back to winning ways, which prompted them to enter the transfer market and sign Ronaldinho, Quaresma, Rafa Márquez, Giovanni van Bronckhorst and Mario Abrante. The latter came from Valladolid and was one of the most unexpected acquisitions. He came on loan.
When Barça came calling for Abrante
Now the former Barça player reflects on his transfer and arrival at the club in the Offsiders podcast:
“That summer the president of Valladolid called me and said: 'Look, Mario, you want a big Spanish team. Barça wants to sign you, but you can't tell anyone. If you say something to someone, the deal will not go through.' At that time, my friends said to me, 'Come on, let's go out and party,' and I said, 'I'm not going anywhere.' I ate well and took care of myself. They asked, “What's the matter with you, man?” because on holiday I would normally gain five kilos. Barça paid three million for me.
That year Ronaldinho, Quaresma and Márquez also signed, and players like Xavi, Iniesta, Luis Enrique, Cocu and Kluivert were already there. I felt so small. Everything was so big, it seemed like another world.”
No training at Barcelona
The former player also described what the training sessions were like:
“They didn't even go to the gym. It was a completely different philosophy. In Barcelona, training was all about the ball: 45 minutes of rondos, a few runs. Actually, they haven't trained. I came from Valladolid, where I was running like crazy, and suddenly I arrived there, and it was only half an hour of rondo. I swear.
Every day I thought: 'Tomorrow again with the rondo.' Apparently it was fun, but I was exhausted. And then it was a lot of ball work, but no physical conditioning. I don't think it was really necessary with the players they had at the time.”
'Ronaldinho better than Messi if…'
Mario also recalled what it was like to train with Ronaldinho:
“If he had taken better care of himself, in my opinion Ronaldinho wouldn't even compare to Messi. And that's saying something considering he only trained at 50-70%. He played with a smile – it was great to see him play and For me, during Barça's golden years, he was by far the best in the world. It was impossible to take the ball away from him; he was on another level, superior to everyone.
“And he was fantastic with us. There were others who didn't even want to say good morning, but Ronaldinho was absolutely spectacular.”
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