Exciting Clasico on the cards

BARCELONA: Barcelona’s players met for dinner in a Catalan restaurant late on Wednesday night to celebrate Ansu Fati’s new contract and to bond ahead of tomorrow’s Clasico against Real Madrid.

The 18-year-old Fati committing himself for another six years carried special significance for Barcelona.

Despite all the problems they face, one of the most exciting talents in the world had pledged his future, raising hopes he can be the leader of a new generation for many years to come.

More immediately, there was the desire for camaraderie ahead of the visit of Real Madrid at Camp Nou.

Barcelona have 15 points, two behind Real Madrid after eight matches. Leaders Real Sociedad have 20 points from nine games.

It will be a chance for Barca to regain lost ground in La Liga and to round off an encouraging week that has already seen them beat Valencia and scrape a much-needed Champions League win over Dynamo Kiev.

Those two intertwining threads — navigating the present while nurturing the future — feel like the defining feature of this Clasico, a meeting of two historic clubs, each of them trying to strategise, fix and rebuild while simultaneously flapping their arms just to keep heads above water.

Last summer, in the same restaurant, Barcelona president Joan Laporta met Ronald Koeman to discuss the season ahead.

Laporta told Koeman he needed two weeks to assess his position as coach, which was taken to mean he would try to find a successor.

But nobody could be found, or at least persuaded, and consequently an awkward, unhappy marriage has continued.

Across from Koeman tomorrow will be Carlo Ancelotti whose appointment by Real Madrid to succeed Zinedine Zidane in the summer came as a surprise.

That is not to say Ancelotti and Koeman have not embraced youth.

Koeman can take credit for promoting several of the players Barcelona are most excited about including Pedri, Gavi, Nico Gonzalez, Ronald Araujo and Sergino Dest.

Ancelotti has put faith in Miguel Gutierrez at left-back and Eduardo Camavinga in midfield.

The 21-year-old Vinicius Junior made his Real Madrid debut in 2018 but under Ancelotti is in the form of his fledgling career.

The result tomorrow will be two sides made up of separate generations.

The 17-year-old Gavi may play alongside the 33-year-old Sergio Busquets or the 20-year-old Rodrygo in support of the 33-year-old Karim Benzema.

With Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo gone, La Liga is trying to harness the image of Spanish football as the world’s new talent factory and the Clasico — its most marketable fixture — as a window into the future.