“Positionally, he seems like a veteran with or without the
ball. With the ball he makes what is difficult look easy: he disposes of the
ball with one or two touches. Without the ball, he gives us a lesson: that of
being in the right place to intercept and running just to recover the ball.” …Johan
Cruyff
“Without Busquets we could never have achieved what we have.
He’s the best midfielder there is playing one-touch. He doesn’t need more. He
controls, looks and passes in one touch.” …Xavi
Hernandez
“If I was reincarnated as a footballer, I would like to be
like Busquets.”
….Vicente Del Bosque
“Xavi and Iniesta are the most creative midfielders in the
world, but, above all, there is Busquets.” ….Javier
Mascherano
Born in Sabadell, he joined the Barça youth system in the
summer of 2005 from Jabac. That season, playing for the Juvenil A side, he won
three major trophies in a team that also included the likes of Bojan, Giovani,
Jeffren and Marc Crosas..
In the 2006-07 season, Sergi Busquets continued with Juvenil
A and was one of the core players in the side coached by Àlex Garcia. In his
third year at the level, and despite still being a midfielder, Sergio scored 7
goals in 26 games.
The following season, Busquets moved up to Barça B under Pep
Guardiola. It was not until the twelfth match that Sergio started a game, but
he immediately impressed, and was picked 23 more times that season. He scored
twice and made a major contribution to the promotion to Division 2B.
He got to play with the first team in the Copa Catalunya
matches of 2007-08 and 2008-09, and then Sergio made his League debut on
September 13, 2008 against Racing Santander (1-1). He came on from the start
and stayed out the full 90 minutes. Busquets would get more and more chances as
the season drew on, and was very much involved in the famous treble win. He
started the Cup final and the Champions League final, thus ending an incredible
twelve months in which he progressed from the third division to being a
European champion!
In the 2009-10 season, he established his name as one of the
most talented central midfielders on the international scene. A few mistakes
had some debating his capability of ever holding a regular place in the side
but by the end of the campaign he had taken Yaya Toure’s place, made his full
debut for the Spanish national side, starred in the Champions League final in
Rome and won an unprecedented treble with Barça.
Busquets quickly became crucial to Barça’s philosophy with
his ability to pressure opponents into making mistakes, recuperating the ball
and quickly laying it off to a teammate to maintain possession.
Throughout his reign, Guardiola would make a number of
variations on the 4-3-3 formation in order to keep his side less predictable
and more flexible:
While Busquets was employed as the outright ‘pivot’ in his
first season where Barcelona won all six trophies available, the manager
brought in a more attacking left-back in Maxwell the following year in order
for both him and Dani Alves on the opposite side to push forward when
attacking, leaving Busquets the duty of filling in as a third center-back if
the opponent was to counter.
The 2010/11 season saw Pep attempt to play, on some
occasions, with three center-backs with Busquets sitting just in front while
the following season, the 3-4-3 was used with Busquets playing in the sweeper
position, moving from the last man between the two center-backs, up to the gap
between the defenders and midfielders. His effortless transition from one role
to another has made him an indispensable component in arguably the best club
side of all time.
In whatever position he plays, the most impressive feature of
Busquets’ game is his positional sense; the Catalan midfielder is always aware
of where he should be in order to create space for his teammates, to intercept
a pass or to adjust the shape of the team.
He will drop deep between the two center-backs to open up
play and will move forward when one of the midfielders drops short to receive
the ball, always creating triangles so crucial to Barça’s approach. Busquets
may not have the passing range of Xavi
Hernandez or the incisive through-ball of Andres Iniesta but
what he does possess as much as, or dare I say more than, the others is speed
of thought. He has become the master of the first-time pass which is as much
down to technique as it is to his awareness of those around him; rarely needing
more than two touches, he will intercept, drop a shoulder and quickly lay the
ball off to the nearest teammate – ‘receive and release’ in a flash.
At 24-years of age, the boy from Badia has already made 200
first-team appearances in Barcelona colours but his importance to the
ever-evolving Barça team means that he could find himself high on the list of
the most number of official matches for the club.
With more and more teams adopting the Barça model, the
‘Busquets-role’ will be one that will be attempted to be emulated by teams
across the globe. The days when one needed to be an expert dribbler or a
long-range shooter to be recognized are behind us. Modern football now demands
a player that can sit patiently in front of the defence, sweeping up play,
giving easy short passes and letting others further up the field take the
glory.
By all means, his diving is not condonable but a man that has
made the likes of Yaya Toure, Seydou Keita and Javier Mascherano redundant and
won 16 major trophies in four years deserves to be associated more with his
positive contribution to the game that what the common football gives him
credit for.
In 2011/2012, Sergio Busquets continued his meteoric rise and
helped the team to victories in the Spanish Supercup, European Supercup, Clubs
World Cup and Copa del Rey, scoring two goals in 52 appearances and
establishing a regular place in the first eleven.
On 11 October 2008 Busquets earned his first cap for Spain's
under-21, in their 2009 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship
qualification play-offs first leg match against Switzerland: he scored in the
17th minute but the national side lost 1–2 away, eventually emerging victorious
4–3 on aggregate.
On 11 February 2009 Busquets was called up to the senior
squad for the friendly against England. He finally made his debut for La Furia
Roja on 1 April 2009, in a 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Turkey,
playing 16 minutes in a 2–1 win in Istanbul after replacing David Silva; four
days earlier he had been named as a substitute when the same sides met in
Madrid, with Spain winning 1–0 through a goal from teammate Gerard Piqué.
Busquets was selected by manager Vicente del Bosque for the
finals in South Africa, assuming the holding midfielder role naturalized
Brazilian Marcos Senna had previously had in the conquest of UEFA Euro 2008: he
played all the games and minutes for the eventual World champions, save for the
last 30 minutes of the 0–1 group stage loss against Switzerland.
Busquets is usually deployed as a central or defensive
midfielder, although he is also capable of playing as a central defender, or
even in the front-line on occasion, due to his strength, size, and ability in
the air, as well as his tendency to make attacking runs. Busquets is known for
the pivotal midfield-anchor role that he plays for both Barcelona and the
Spanish national side; a hard-working player, he excels at breaking down
opposition plays due to his positional sense, defensive attributes, tactical
intelligence, and ability to read the game. Due to his vision, ball control,
and accurate passing ability, he rarely relinquishes possession, and alongside
Xavi and Iniesta he plays an important role in setting his team's tempo in
midfield through his passing game. Busquets has also been accused of diving on
occasion,and, Vicente Del Bosque has highly praised Busquets, saying that
"You watch the game, and you don't see Busquets, you watch Busquets, and
you see the whole game.
Busquets still has a long time ahead of him in his career,
but in my opinion he may already be the best holding midfielder the world has
ever seen. A man who does his job to absolute perfection and possibly deserves
a great deal more credit than he currently gets.
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