Michael Laudrup has been linked to a return to Barcelona, which is hugely surprising considering the controversial way in which he decided to leave the Camp Nou to join historical rivals Real Madrid back in 1994.
Jordi Majo, who is one of the candidates to take over Josep Maria Bartomeu as Barca’s president, explained: “Laudrup will become the club’s sporting director if I get elected. With him, I’ve thought about the person, not the name. If I thought about the name, I would have asked someone more media-liked. Laudrup is intelligent, he has experience, the right age and he knows the Barça culture. He also has a good relationship with Johan Cruyff, which is important.”
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A huge mistake, if you ask me.
Laudrup left Barcelona at the peak of their forces back in the mid-1990s, following a season of ongoing disagreements with Cruyff due to his lack of playing time compared to Romario, Hristo Stoichkov and Ronald Koeman — the only three foreigners which the rules allowed to play at the time.
While it is understandable that a player who wasn’t granted regular appearances opted to move elsewhere, he certainly didn’t have to choose Real Madrid as his next destination. After five years living in Catalunya, Culers were right to expect a bit more respect from their former player.
Although Laudrup denied looking for revenge with the move to the Spanish capital, it is little short of impossible to avoid thinking that joining Madrid was a way of getting back at Cruyff and, by extension, the Blaugrana faithful.
If Jordi Majo was already going to find it pretty much impossible to compete with Joan Laporta and Bartomeu to become president at Barcelona, his shocking decision to trust his hypothetical sporting project to a man who famously disrespected Culers by joining their historical rivals reduces his chances of success to zero.
It’s your turn
What do you think? Would you welcome Laudrup back to Barcelona? Can his decision to join Real Madrid ever be forgiven? I’d love to hear your views. Share your thoughts with our fellow Blaugranas in the comment box below.
