End of era for Barcelona

I have been on record as saying that Barcelona of a few years ago were the best team I have ever watched play football. No other team I have ever witnessed was as dominant, as slick, as when Barça were in their prime. No other team was so capable of making other big sides look so completely out of the game.

That Barcelona team of, say, four years ago, combined eye-catching flair and mouth-watering aesthetics with ruthless efficiency, in a way that is uncommon, not only in football, but in all of sports.

Very rarely has any team been so dominant and so easy on the eye. The West Indies 1980s cricket team and the marauding Chicago Bulls in the 1990s are close, but not of the same stamp. Barcelona, unlike any other team I can think of, played the way how all other teams would love to play, but simply couldn't.

But like all other good things in life, it simply had to come to an end. Watching Barcelona over the last year or two, it is obvious that we are witnessing a team in decline, and definitely the end of an era.

When they were walloped 7-0 over two legs in last year's Champions League, the writing was on the wall. When I watched them losing 1-0 to Atletico Madrid on Wednesday in the Champions League second leg, that writing on the wall was like loud graffiti instead of regular scribbling.

The acquisition of the high-riding Neymar was supposed to help Barcelona maintain their aura, if not their stranglehold, on European club football. It hasn't worked. Neymar is a quality player but, as yet, doesn't have the overall influence on games to keep Barcelona on top of the pile.

Cesc Fabregas, who was supposed to be the man that took over once the ageing stars were on their way out, is looking all too ordinary. As one newspaper reporter put it, Cesc seems to be "a jack of all trades, and master of none".

Lionel Messi, the lynchpin of the great Barcelona, seems to be operating at cruise control for much of his latest games and Barcelona's free fall as the most feared club team ever has a lot to do with Messi's own up-and-down form. It's not so much that Messi has lost anything. When he really wants to, he can turn it on and be virtually unstoppable. Messi, however, has nothing else to prove in a Barcelona shirt, because he no longer has anything to prove at the club level.

Messi must know that his status as one of the very best to have ever played the game is dependent, to a large extent, on what he does at a World Cup. Mark you, there are those who feel (with good reason) that Champions League football is at a higher standard generally than World Cup football, and that a man who dominates the Champions League doesn't need the World Cup to prove his worth.

Messi's legacy

Whatever the merits of that particular argument, though, the truth is that a high-quality performance at the upcoming World Cup would go a far way in sealing Messi's legacy. If he wins the World Cup with Argentina, and turns in truly great performances, there are those who are prepared to put him above such heavyweights as Pele and Maradona.

Messi must know this, and there are those who are willing to argue that at the club level and Champions League, he is basically biding his time, not going all out and trying his best not to risk injury. Why go for more Champions League and La Liga glory at the risk of stamping his brand in the upcoming World Cup? Is this what Messi is thinking?

If so, could anyone blame him? He is widely acclaimed as probably the best club player ever. He is a four-time player of the year. He has done all he can at Barcelona. He has absolutely nothing to prove in Europe, and we may have to forgive him if he leaves a little of the magic for the stage where he will truly be judged, the World Cup in the summer.

Messi is at the right age, mid-twenties, when most sportsmen are at their prime. That classy Barcelona unit may be a thing of the past, an end to a glorious era, but the final chapter in Messi's book is not yet written and could be on full show in Brazil in a few weeks' time. Interesting times are ahead.

Orville Higgins is a sportscaster with KLAS ESPN FM. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.