Pedri Talks Messi, Iniesta, Xavi, La Liga Title: “Would Love To See Leo Come Back”
Pedri has become Barcelona’s most important midfielder in a short time. The 20-year-old talent may have just one league assist to show this season, but it is clear that statistics do not do his brilliance justice.
Alongside Gavi and Frenkie de Jong, Pedri is expected to be the face of Barcelona’s midfield for the next decade. The La Liga title won on Sunday is surely just the first of many to come in his career.
The prodigy has been likened to Andres Iniesta for a long time now, especially for his composure and vision with the ball at his feet. In a recent interview with El Hormiguero, the young sensation gave further fuel to talks regarding his similarity with the legend.
“When I was little, I wanted to go bald like Iniesta.”
Talking about the La Liga title triumph, he said: “Three years ago I was in Las Palmas, near my home with my parents. And now I am a La Liga champion.”
On the celebrations against Espanyol and the pitch invasion from the fans that followed, Pedri said: “After the match against Espanyol, we didn’t want to celebrate to disrespect any Espanyol fans, we just wanted to celebrate because we won La Liga.
“When the Espanyol fans came onto the pitch I ran faster than I had done the whole game.”
Barcelona’s run in Europe did not go to plan, but arch-rivals Real Madrid have qualified for the semifinal and will play the second leg later tonight. When asked to pick sides, Pedri said:
“I won’t tell you that I want Madrid to win, I prefer City to qualify for the final. I love Pep’s style and he’s a former Barca coach.”
Injuries have not been kind to the star midfielder, and his absence in the middle of this season coincided with Barcelona’s lowest moments. He talked about his fitness and how he kept himself ready to come back stronger.
“There are players who, when they come back from injury, are afraid, but I forget that I was injured and play as I am.”
Pedri shared a special bond with Lionel Messi in the short tenure they both spent as teammates. He revealed the Argentine’s role in his development behind the scenes and how the former captain made him feel at home.
“In my first days at Barca when I met Messi, Busquets, and others, I was scared. I didn’t go into the dressing room to avoid seeing them, because I felt embarrassed. I preferred to stay in the gym waiting for them not to be there… I was really scared.”
“When I arrived at Barca I was afraid to interact with the players, until one day Messi came up to me and said ‘Come in, come in’… Leo helped me a lot.”
One of the questions that followed, naturally, was one surrounding Messi’s possible return to the club in June. The Spanish international revealed his excitement to see the Argentine ace back in Blaugrana colours and commented on Messi’s brilliance in training.
“I would love to see Leo (Messi) come back to .Barcelona”
“Messi in training? You can’t take the ball away from him. No matter how hard you try.”
Finally, theBarcelona star had words of appreciation for Xavi Hernandez who guided the young team to a special La Liga title.
“Xavi is close to the players and gives us good advice, even off the pitch he always tells us not to exceed the limits. Sometimes when he speaks he gradually gets angry, almost every player has seen Xavi’s anger.”
On whether the Negreira scandal had an effect on the players, he said: “We don’t talk about that in the dressing room, we are focused on football.”
