The Barça coach has a great eye behind the camera

Ernesto Valverde If today in Anfield shortly before 21 o'clock on the bench, he will be dozens of people surrounded, he could understand as a colleague. And no different it will be when he hears according to the semi-finals of the Champions League in the press room, the whirring and Clicking of the photo cameras, and he ends his eyes because of the flash formed lights small slits.

Valverde (55) is not only the coach of the old and new Spanish champion Barcelona - a game from the Champions League Final, and thus the biggest success of his career. Valverde is also a photographer. And, as such, with a larger artistic Talent blessed than some of the scans it from a professional. Photography, said Valverde in a recent remarkable Interview with the newspaper "La Vanguardia", is a way to escape the everyday. But she was "not a Hobby, but something very Serious in my life".

Remarkably, the Interview was also because Valverde is actually for exclusive interviews since he started in 2017, the work at Barça. The talk doing his Team: It has made a few weeks ago, the second title in the series, for the second Time in a row in the Cup Final. And since 3:0 in the first leg against Liverpool, Barça needs a Coach, no longer the telephoto lens, to see the Champions-League-Final-scene of Madrid.

camera from the Canary Islands

The way was far. Valverde is born in the barren Extremadura, his parents emigrated to the Basque country when he was a Baby. The father made his living as a worker in a tyre factory, he was footballer , made his debut as a professional at Alavés. Even then, he was fascinated by photography: one of his memories that he allowed himself his first real camera from a colleague in the Canary Islands arise where the tax rates for such products were a lot cheaper.

in 1986, not moved Valverde to Barcelona, where he played football, first at Espanyol, FC under Johan Cruyff, but also at the Institut dEstudis Fotogràfics enrolled.

The bread profession but remained in the football. His coaching career began in the offspring of Bilbao; she led him up to the head coach of the first team, which he led in 2005, in its second year, to rank 5th in the League. After playing with Espanyol, Villarreal and Valencia, he recommended himself with his work in Olympiakos Piraeus for the highest tasks. In Greece, he shot fantastic photos, is but especially in the case of many God-like Status, because he titles Olympiakos to three League and two Cup Victories, led a refreshment in times of crisis. And He gained the respect of Johan Cruyff. "It's Fun, his Teams to watch," praised barça's Father. The sound of many Barça Fans in the ear, as Valverde in 2017, followed in the footsteps of the current Spanish national coach Luis Enrique, who had brought in 2015, the last Triple barça's. Now Valverde tries to emulate it.

105 wins in 116 Games

The skepticism is in Barcelona and shimmered, gradually coarse-grained. The team he has on his side, because she likes his calm nature, his inclination to minimizing the seriousness of everything, involve the players and to leave them in doubt, the decision on the court. Although attested him the most radical purists of the "Cruyff-ISM", as long as a break in style, because he's the Defensive a higher priority than various predecessors, because he is less fixated on possession of the ball. But the results speak such a formidable language for Valverde as his previous overall balance. He has scored for Barça in the 116 duty of 105 wins games. On Saturday, Barcelona lost the game in Vigo only to be fourth in the League in two years. And: Valverde has important advocates. Above all, Lionel Messi.

The Captain had done a minor skirmish with two Triple-coaches, Barca's, with Pep Guardiola and Luis Enrique. With Valverde, but he does not understand, because this "'t care to transcend, because he felt neither megalomania nor Wichtigskeitsanfälle, not for the guardians of a style, but everything to win," said Messi.

And today? Barcelona have to defend in Liverpool 3:0 – against an opponent, with Salah and Firmino two performers injured missing. But Valverde warned already after the first leg that you have given 2018 in the case of the Roma a Three-goal lead. Which is nothing more meant, than that we are immune to nothing, neither on the grass nor in the life.

this is Exactly what he wanted to with the camera to capture, he said. In black and white, because the "something Poetic, Mysterious" is inherent. He should portray itself, he would catch aspire to, "the degree of vulnerability that we all have," says Valverde. And what was supposed to be more vulnerable than a football team, so much so, she has often shone in Technicolor. (Süddeutsche Zeitung)

Created: 07.05.2019, 18:08 PM