The Barcelona Complex: Lionel Messi and the Making--and Unmaking--of the World's Greatest Soccer Club Free Audiobook Download by Simon Kuper

In The Barcelona Complex, Simon Kuper examines the transfer record of Lionel Messi--and more specifically he looks at how the world (and his life) changed when Messi was sold to FC Barcelona in 2000. As the book demonstrates, this decision led to a world dominated by super-clubs of which Barca has become the most successful--but it also brought about a regression in player formation and tactics as well as another "modern" method of recruiting players: buying them.

Barcelona's ability to dominate world soccer has been incredible. The club has won more than anyone else in Europe, and it is a perennial contender for the Champions League. In other words, Barcelona have been as good as Pep Guardiola intended for them to be. Yet after he took over at Manchester City in 2008, Barcelona did not win a single game against his team- and that was the beginning of their demise.

Barcelona is a complex city, and soccer is far from its most sublime product. But this book by Simon Kuper looks at both. The Barcelona Complex helped me understand what a club and its community are in the 21st century, at a time when global sport has become so much more than just physical activities.

In simple terms, the Barcelona Complex is a theory which posits that Leo Messi's talents would have made him one of the greatest footballers in history if he were playing for any other team. The theory hinges on a hypothetical scenario where Messi would have signed with FC BARCELONA in 2013 and been given the freedom to play as he pleases, with no limitations on his movement and creativity.

In this audiobook, Simon Kuper explores the complete history of Barcelona and where it went wrong. He does so with his trademark wit, humor, and perspective that is able to take a complex situation and make it real for readers.

In the eighteenth year of Messi's time in Barcelona, the club looked like it might finally be facing its reckoning. The team was out of both domestic and continental tournaments, their stars (Messi and Neymar) had failed to impress on the world stage, and they were set to lose their most important player of them all: Luis Suarez. For a club that has been considered the best in the world for fifty years, it was a turn for the worse. In this book, Simon Kuper takes us back through the history of Barcelona as he follows how they managed to turn things around, even if only temporarily; Messi saved them and then he un-saved them.