Casadó, the great simplifier, by Santiago Segurola

The two shortest players in the Westfalen stadium, Borussia Dortmund’s fortress that is rarely impregnable, were the young Julien Duranville, a skilled winger who gave Balde several bad times, and Marc Casadó, who appears in the media report to be 1.72 meters, although it doesn’t look like it. Long ago, basketball players and many soccer players used to shoot with their boots on. In the case of the phenomenal Barça midfielder, it does not matter what he measures, but rather his tremendous influence on the game and the revitalization of the team.

Casadó has installed himself as the starter and no one will move him from there. He is the great simplifier of the game, both in the offensive and offensive aspects. His ability to synthesize, one of the most important qualities in football and one of the least common, is hardly comparable in the current panorama. Casadó explains himself in the field with exemplary minimalism. Nothing is left over from his game. Remove everything superfluous and choose what is essential, without the slightest concession to baroqueness, vanity or laziness.

Nobody expected him and now it is the emergence of the year in European football

With this absolute purification, Casadó represents a fascinating species, in danger of extinction. He has found the best ally in his coach, Hansi Flick, who is a man without prejudices. He has managed to transform a player with a light winger’s body into an exceptional center midfielder.

Never as in these times, which invoke the athlete before the footballer, is the figure of Casadó so poetic. They say that during his training period at La Masia he moved around various positions, without settling definitively in any of them. It is likely that in that long journey through the various categories of Barça and the numerous obligations that he had to fulfill, Casado reflected in depth on the demands of each position. It is a process that requires character and great intelligence.

It is clear that his affiliation to Barça since childhood has helped him in his distillation process. A glance at Olmo, Casadó or Bernal is useful to instantly detect your school of origin. It is enough to see how they are outlined to attribute their football origins to them. Casadó has reached this point in his career for his own reasons – intelligence to learn, professional courage to compete within the squad and the ardent desire to take advantage of the opportunities granted to him – and the fortune of meeting Hansi Flick along the way, a trainer without earmuffs.

Flick’s first idea was to place Marc Bernal, the tall left-hander, in the position that Busquets defined like no one else. His serious injury meant Casadó was moved to the midfield axis. In many ways, there are no two players more different than Busquets and Casadó. One was tall and haughty, a constant beacon on the field, not quick to run, prodigious at thinking, anticipating, correcting and setting up the game, as well as an accomplished ankle scratcher.

At first glance, Casadó is the opposite of Busquets, but its effect is the same. Guess, mark and remove. Their ability to anticipate danger and their defensive instinct are astonishing. He is small in stature, but plays as if he were 1.90 m tall. Casadó moves like a piranha in the field. What it lacks in centimeters it replaces with dynamics and fierceness. He enjoys defending, or so it seems from the outside, and is a magnificent supplier. At this point, everyone knows that Casadó has a short, long and extra-long pass.

In a season in which all Barça players have improved their performance, some exponentially, Casadó is a case apart. Nobody expected him and now he is the breakthrough of the year in European football.