Barcelona (EFE) the name of ex-azulgrana Leo Messi.
All the men’s and women’s first team footballers, who each occupied an open-top bus, wore a commemorative shirt with the names of the entire squad, as well as Barça scarves and caps.
The great absentee at this party was Gerard Piqué, who played the first part of the season until retiring, and who was finally not in the rúa despite the fact that the coach, Xavi Hernández, said he was invited.
The culé fans, who already wanted to celebrate the league title with their two professional teams, showed their support from the moment they got off the bus, accompanying him through Travessera de les Corts. Also “I’m a fan of Alexia Putellas, I’ve been waiting for the players’ bus for an hour”, declared a young fan, who was waiting for the bus to pass, in statements to Barça TV.
The Barcelona expedition took the first turn on Numancia street, constantly interacting with all the fans who cheered and celebrated with them, some from the balconies of the buildings where the street passed.
In fact, the center-back Ronald Araújo, who carried a Uruguayan flag, starred in a beautiful image by taking a fan’s shirt and marker to sign it, along with Raphinha, and returning it to the same fan who had thrown it at him.
The second turn of the bus took place towards Berlin/Paris street, and with a large presence of young people, who after four years were celebrating the title with great enthusiasm, some for the first time.
“Every time it’s different, this one is special, you can see that people are very excited, we love sharing this with them,” said German goalkeeper Ter Stegen, who had already celebrated three league titles, from the same bus.
A little before the turn towards Balmes street, a fan caught the attention of the players, and that is that from a balcony he showed an image of Frenkie de Jong printed on cardboard in real size.
Once the coach was in Balmes, quite late as expected due to the large number of Barça fans who did not want to miss the league celebration, both the squads and fans vibrated to the chant of “Champions, champions!”.
Alexia Putellas, captain of Barça, stated that she was “very happy”, although with “a part of the mind” in Eindhoven, where they will play the Champions League final against Wolfsburg (June 3). Perhaps, for this reason, the women’s celebration -with the second Champions League title in the spotlight- was more restrained than that of the boys.
A euphoric Ronald Araújo also spoke: “People always support us, the encouragement they give us is very important. I had never experienced anything like this and it is tremendous happiness, let’s go Barça, let’s go damn it!”.
And a little before going through Plaza Catalunya, the area with the most influx of spectators, the Barça Women’s coach, Jonatan Giráldez, stressed that they are “very privileged people” for living experiences like these, because football “belongs to the fans and this is for them.”
Upon arriving at Plaza Cataluña, the Polish striker Robert Lewandowski starred in an image that the fans liked a lot, and that is that he began to dance effusively.
Between Pelai, Fontanella and Trafalgar streets, the last ones before reaching the Arc de Triomf, the two Barcelona squads sang, together with the Barça fans, some of the most iconic songs of the Catalan team.
And no one wanted to forget the Argentine star Leo Messi, currently at Paris Saint-Germain. All fans dream of his return, and throughout the route his name was repeatedly chanted.
Finally, with more punctuality than expected in the middle of the rúa, the coaches of the first Barcelona men’s and women’s squads arrived at the end of the route, at the Arc de Triomf, at 9:00 p.m. There, the party ended, which this time did not have the parliaments at the Camp Nou as an epilogue.