Today Barcelona beat North American champions Atlante 3-1 in Abu Dhabi in the Club World Cup. Barca already had a historic season, becoming the first Spanish team to win the treble last year (La Liga, Copa del Rey, UEFA Champions League). But they just continue to win everything imaginable, simply leaving all in their wake.
At one point in 2009, after winning the Football League Cup, a.k.a. the Carling Cup, Manchester United were the holders of five trophies - the reigning champions of the Premier League, UEFA Champions League, Community Shield, Club World Cup, and lastly the League Cup.
Well, Barca looks like they'll do Man U one better. The Club World Cup final has yet to be played, and I'll be on vacation when it happens, but if the the blaugrana win they will hold six championships: La Liga, UEFA Champions League, Copa del Rey, Spanish Supercup, European Supercup, and the Club World Cup.
Read that again. Just ridiculous.
And it will have all happened in one season proper (with the Supercups and Club World Cup following the previous season because they use the champions from the previous year). Yes Man U held their five trophies at once, but their League Cup title was really in the cycle for the following year.
Equally amazing, in scoring today, Pedro became the first person ever to score in six competitions in the same season. And I barely even knew of him last season.
With youngsters like Pedro, Bojan Krkic, Sergi Busquets, a 22 year old named Leo Messi , and 22 year old Gerard Piqué and 23 year old Dmytro Chygrynskiy in defense, not to mention that players like Andrés Iniesta and Dani Alves are only 25 and 26 respectively, they seem pretty nicely set to dominate for quite some time.
(For comparison at Real Madrid, Ronaldo, Gonzalo Higuaín, Sergio Ramos, Karim Benzema, Fernando Gago, Marcelo, Raul Albiol, and Lass Diara are all 24 or younger. Which set of under 25s would you take, meaning excluding Iniesta (otherwise it would've been an absolute no brainer to me that you pick Barca)? Tougher than one would think when you consider the general notion that Barca breeds their players from youth and Real Madrid sign up stars in their primes or just entering them.)
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