Espionage and Elásticas: How FC Barcelona Captured Ronaldo and Remembering His Blistering Blaugrana Debut
31.08.26, 10:02 Updated 31.08.26, 10:13
Tom Sanderson
In one of the biggest sliding doors moments of the decade at FC Barcelona, and in European football on the whole for that matter, Zinedine Zidane reportedly gave his word to Johan Cruyff that he’d don Blaugrana at the start of 1996/1997 season.
After Cruyff fell out with the president of the era Josep Lluís Núñez, however, the Dutchman that rebuilt Barça from the ground up and brought us the Dream Team was dismissed as a trophyless campaign still had two games left.
He then had to tell Zidane that the deal was off, leading to his transfer from Bordeaux to Juventus, in a move that indirectly put Zidane on the path to eternal rivals Real Madrid via a world record 2001 transfer.
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Tom Sanderson has lived in Barcelona since 2019, when he became Forbes' lead reporter on FC Barcelona and Spanish football. He's been The Guardian's most prominent writer on Brazilian football for almost a decade as part of a journey that began in São Paulo. In London, he also became the Daily Mail's first-ever Spanish content writer in its sports department.