In case you are not interested in football, or if you are you were living under a rock, 10 days ago Real Madrid won their 12th European cup. They won 4-1 in Cardiff with a sublime display of football. This is an extraordinary achievement with four European cups in the last few years. There is no question that as a club, Real Madrid is the greatest team of all time. They are a machine designed to win. Mostly the desire for the European cup because the European cup is the most important cup to win. Their success and their very being revolve around their ability to lift that trophy.
It’s clear that the expectation within that club is to win that trophy, and in recent years the heights to which they have risen have been extraordinary, certainly in the modern game.
Barcelona, their arch rivals within Spanish football, have ‘only’ won the European cup on five occasions. That, in terms of the competition, is a universe away from twelve European cups held by Real Madrid. Barcelona as an organisation have a slightly different agenda. They do of course seek success and success in football is only measured by silverware but to Barcelona they are a symbol of Catalan independence.
You only need to visit to get a sense and a feel for what Barcelona football club means to the people there. Its no secret what Johan Cryuff felt about his time at Barcelona and the impact that he had at the club due to his understanding of the cultural set up. Nor is it a surprise to note that Pep Guardiola was in Barcelona last week to promote the concept of Catalan independence.
In football, Real Madrid is the greatest and they look the greatest too. Even their strip, all white, stands out from almost everybody else; it makes them look like ‘angels on the pitch’. But the club doesn’t stand for anything deeper or bigger, it stands for winning trophies. That is not to say that that is something bad, it’s just something.
And so the same applies to you, it applies to me and it applies to us. I think you can choose to be one or the other, but over long term, I don’t think you can choose to be better. Ultimately the pursuit of one affects the ability to achieve the other.
Blog Post Number - 1312
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