Paulinho, part of a club with more players remembered than accepted

Throughout its history, FC Barcelona has produced some of the best footballers of all time. In addition to many other greats of the traditional football Olympus, such as Leo Messi, Diego Maradona and Johan Cruyff, no team has had three of the five players generally considered to be the great legends of the ball. However, the tradition of a club like Barça has attracted the interest of all kinds of footballers, some of whom joined with great expectations but disappoint, others who were welcomed with heated debates about their technical level but failed to deliver. When they left a better memory than their presentation, by their appearance or by their appearance in important sporting moments for the culé team. One of them was Paulinho Bezerra, a midfielder who played 56 times for the Brazilian national team. He has just announced his retirement at the age of 36. In this 21st century, there are more players who left good memories despite having appeared on tiptoe, and MD remembers some of them.

Paulinho (2018-19)

10 goals and 6 assists in one year

Paulinho Bezerra joined Barça in the 2018-19 season from China’s Guangzhou Evergrande for 50 million euros, and returned to the same club the following 2019-20 season for a similar amount. Since Paulinho joined the club, his problems with public opinion at Tottenham, where he performed below expectations, are widely remembered, and at the decisive moment, Ernesto Valverde was on the Barça bench, so Paulinho ended up playing. A lot and. Above all, contributing something that is not so easy for a midfielder: goals. As a Barça player, he played 34 games, scoring 10 goals and providing 6 assists, finishing fifth in the club’s historical transfer rankings.

Luk de Jong

He achieved his goal as a “desperate” scorer.

The signing of Luuk de Jong was a last-minute recommendation from Ronald Koeman to FC Barcelona for the 2021-22 season, following the loss of Antoine Griezmann, who returned to Atlético Madrid. The Dutch forward arrived at the Camp Nou following the emotional shock of Leo Messi’s stormy departure, but his arrival did not cause any enthusiasm. The Barça club, who had been on loan for a season from Sevilla FC, decided at the end of that loan not to exercise the very affordable purchase option for the classic goalscorer, who played in dribs and drabs and scored seven goals while appearing in 27 games as a culé, some of which were against Espanyol, Mallorca and Levante to save points at the last minute. He eventually returned to PSV for 3 million euros, scoring 38 goals and 18 assists in Eindhoven last season.

Pierre Aubameyang

Ball and box round business

Pierre Aubameyang is a very special case, at the time he was one of the most prestigious finishing forwards in European football. However, when he arrived at Barça, his star was completely overshadowed at Arsenal. That is why the Barça club was able to sign him without paying a transfer fee. He arrived at the Camp Nou in January 2022, and in half a season the 33-year-old Gabonese attacker scored 13 goals in 24 games, including two of the four goals against Real Madrid at the Bernabéu, making an important contribution to the Barça team’s qualification for the group stage of the Champions League in the 2022-23 season. The following summer, Barça covered part of Robert Lewandowski’s contract by selling Auba to Chelsea, who paid 12 million euros. For Barça, it was therefore a big deal, both for the ball and for the financial benefits.

Franck Kessié

League goals against Madrid and good sales

If footballers are valued by their performance relative to their price, then the signing of Franck Kessié was a success for Barça.
After terminating his contract with the Milan team, where he won the ‘Scudetto’ as a starter after 11 seasons, he joined for free in the summer of 2022, repeating the harvest at FC Barcelona in his only season as a culé. Their competition during the 2022-23 academic year brought him the title of the Spanish Super Cup and success in the league, with unparalleled ‘highlights’ in its conquests, such as a last-minute decisive goal in the Clasico at the Camp Nou. He eliminated the limited possibilities of victory for the meringues. Baptized ‘President of Milan’, Kessié scored 3 goals and 3 assists in 43 games as a Barça player, in addition to which his sale to the Saudi-Argentine brought the club a net profit of 12.5 million euros. Ahli in 2023.

Ibrahim Afellay

A boarding school with an enduring tradition

Ibrahim Afellay is one of those examples that football sometimes offers, forever remembered as a moment of inspiration. Not that the Dutch midfielder was not a good player. He joined Barça in January 2011, when he was still captain of PSV, for just 3 million euros, as his contract expired in June of that year. His time in the team that is still remembered today as having played the best football in history was not as participatory as he would have liked, but at least he left a decisive play that will be forever remembered by Barcelona fans: his challenge against Marcelo in the semi-final of Madrid vs Barça in the Champions League in 2010-11, culminating in a crucial match to conquer that “Orejona” by Leo Messi. Now 38 years old and retiring in 2021, Afellay was the protagonist of a series of transfers, from leaving Barça permanently in 2015 to play for Stoke City, and finally retiring at PSV. Marcelo will forever remain in Barça history thanks to that challenge he won against the Madrid full-back.

Juliano Beretti

A culé-like goal, but what a goal!

Juliano Belletti is the clearest example of a footballer who added a new chapter to the club’s great history at the right time and in the right place. The Brazilian full-back scored Barça’s second goal in the 2006 Champions League final against Arsenal, and the reaction of the Barça team in Paris after Samuel Eto’o’s fleeting equalizer was superb. Curiously, it was Belletti’s only goal as a culé, but what a goal it was! Belletti joined Barça in 2004 after making his mark at Villarreal, before moving to Chelsea in 2007. But that goal, at the height of the Paris storm, earned him a privileged place in the culé’s memory. Now 48 years old, Belletti is part of the club’s technical staff as coach of the youth A team.

Edgar Davids

A mechanical “click” that creates a virtuous cycle

Ronaldinho Gaucho was the banner of Barça enthusiasm and in 2003 a great era began. But despite the talent of the Brazilian genius, Frank Rijkaard’s team lacked the mechanical element to activate the so-called “virtuous circle”. That piece was named after Edgar David. The Dutch midfielder had been marginalized at Juventus, but Barça managed to realize a loan on the market and restore the great prestige of the Dutchman at the Camp Nou in the second half of the league season of the 2003-04 season. Davids gave Barça stability, helping them finish second in the league, up to 18 points behind Real Madrid in a season and a half. Although he never continued playing for Barcelona, ​​David was able to sign with Inter and became part of the Barça legends for many years. His immediate performance as a culé was such that even today when people talk about signings in the winter, they still talk about “bringing Davids”.