Gracias Barca?Not Quite Hasta la vista

It was back in May in the late northern hemisphere spring that all the European football leagues completed their domestic league and European 2012/2013 fixtures. It was only then that their knackered stars were free to take a few weeks off to rest and recuperate, with many embarking on their private summer holidays. All too soon they had to report back to their clubs in early July for pre-season training and new-season bonding. With an eye on marketing, branding and promotional possibilities away from home turf, these teams embarked on pre-season tours in far-away places like North America, Australia, Africa and increasingly importantly, Asia. This year, teams like Liverpool, Chelsea and Barcelona headed this way while Real Madrid opted to go Stateside and Manchester United trekked south Down Under. Why do they do embark on such arduous trips? Simply because these are where its legion of foreign fans are found. In Malaysia for instance, local football fans know more about the players and care more about the fortunes of teams playing in the English Premier League (EPL – also referred to as the Barclays Premier League after Barclays Bank, its sponsors), than they do care for their very own CIMB Bank which part-picked up the bill for this current Barca foray to these shores.

Merchandising possibilities play a part. Brazen bootlegging and rampant piracy notwithstanding, such “Ola Barca I am Neymar” trips can move bales of number 9 replica player shirts. Then there’s the possibility to monetise their made-for-TV attractiveness which has become the lifeblood of the top European clubs. Television rights sold to stations in Malaysia are hard-fought amongst television stations, as they are back home in the United Kingdom. Hey you Malaysian television audiences; it is your pay-TV subscription that is helping pay Wayne Rooney’s gazillion-ringgit a-week contract. Wake up Malaysians, you are not getting to see the games week in week out for free!

So how do they repay us our eastern hospitality? With kindness you say? Na daaaa...! That is how some sections among the growing legions of local Barca fans must have felt, not just from Malaysia but among those who came all the way from Singapore and Indonesia. They paid good money to watch the likes of Messi and Neymar trot out on to the pitch, break a bit of sweat, tiki and takka their way round their diminutive and overmatched opponents and maybe score a few goals along the way.

In the event, they got the snub of their lives. This cold treatment started right from Day 1 – Barca’s arrival at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) on Thursday - Hari Raya day. The hordes of waiting local media – including the band from the so-called official broadcast media contingent - got a first hand lesson in being awarded the cold-shoulder, a Spanish one at that. According to the grand plans seriously charted months before the event, local media were beside themselves making arrangements as to how they were going to lay out a typical Malaysian welcome for the Latin guests.

Alas, us locals propose only for them Catalans to dispose. A welcome press conference within the confines of the ultra-exclusive Bilik Bunga Raya heretofore reserved for Royalty and VVVIPs and this time; Very Important Barca Players remained just that – mere plans. The team chose to pass on the opportunity to greet and meet their official welcome party soon after their arrival from Bangkok and were whisked immediately to their hotel in Bandar Utama.

Then there was the last minute switch in venue forced on the organisers when the team of thoroughbreds deemed the Bukit Jalil Stadium unfit for their consumption. Here, I am thoroughly in agreement with them.

The boo-boo is entirely of our own making. If one had enough money to persuade Nureyev at his prime to come to Kuala Lumpur, what major tantrum would he have kicked up had he been asked to dance Swan Lake in a makeshift secondary school hall? If I were Messi, I would not want to run the risk of stumbling over a divot and exacerbate a knawing ingrowing toe nail – no way Jose!

Be that as it may, Messi’s seeming inability to come across with any degree of warmth or friendliness made for a very cold and distant relationship. Come on Lionel, all 50,000 fans came to see you! Language of course had everything to do with it. I really cannot for the life of me, find rhyme or reason why footballers don’t spend a bit of their free time to pick up another lingua franca. Their schedules may be busy but what’s there to do in between training, playing, partying, training, playing and partying all nine months of their productive year?

Throughout it all, Barca had a redeeming star – Neymar; Neymar da Silva Santos Junior, to give him all his due. Still only 21, the young man does not look like your typical sportman. He stands only all 5 foot 9 tall, very lean to the point of being skinny and looked no different from the average fan. But it was his easy approachability and down-to-earth demeanour that made him a hit with those who were lucky enough to have had access to him.

He is reportedly being paid 7 million Euros this year by Barca (multiply that by 4 or thereabouts and that’s what he earns in ringgits for the next 12 months) and for that money, even I would be smiling the whole day with no worries about where the next meal is coming from. It is therefore unfathomable to me how the likes of Ronaldo, Rooney and Suarez find room for agitation with their want-away demands.

Follow Neymar is my advice. He easily broke off from the team for an official engagement brought him into the home of one lucky schoolboy footballer Mohd Syafiq Salmi. Not only that, language barrier notwithstanding, he radiated enough of his aura to make a lasting impression on the 15-year-old Victoria Institution lad.

From there Neymar visited the school where Syafiq picked up his ball-playing skills and took part in a spirited futsal kickabout with his mates. For such a well-honed and highly-tuned man-machine, engaging in such games on pitches that are littered with any number of ruts and ridges would immediately push up his insurance premium. Not for Neymar any thought of backing off. He turned up, played on and made a lasting impression and became a hit with his growing band of young Malaysian fans.

So bye bye Barca. Hasta La vista Neymar.

RAZAK Chik believes there is no more accomplished English player to have visited our shores than John Barnes who toured Malaysia and played in Stadium Merdeka in the 1980s with his then team, Watford Town.