Back From the Silence: Growing Older With Barça

It has been a long time.

The last time I wrote here, the world—and FC Barcelona—felt very different. Back then, writing about football was a reflex. Victories flowed easily, legends were still in their prime, and supporting Barça felt like standing on the right side of football history. Somewhere along the way, life intervened, words dried up, and this blog fell silent.

But football has a way of pulling you back. Barça certainly does.

Since 2016, being a Barcelona supporter has been anything but comfortable. The years that followed were a strange cocktail of denial, arrogance, hope, heartbreak, and eventual reckoning. The club that once defined modern football slowly started losing its identity, not in one dramatic collapse, but through a series of small, painful compromises.

We saw historic nights that still defy explanation—Rome, Anfield, Lisbon. Matches that weren’t just losses, but emotional gut punches. Nights that made you question whether you wanted to watch football again the next morning. The invincibility that once surrounded Barça evaporated, replaced by fragility, panic, and short-term thinking.

Off the pitch, the problems ran even deeper. Poor recruitment, bloated wages, boardroom chaos, and a growing disconnect between the club’s values and its decisions. For a club that once prided itself on being Més que un club, it often felt like it had forgotten what that meant.

And then came the moment none of us were prepared for—Lionel Messi leaving Barcelona. Not in a farewell at the Camp Nou, not after one final ovation, but quietly, painfully, and unfairly. For many of us, Messi wasn’t just the greatest player we had ever seen; he was the emotional anchor of this club. Watching him leave felt like watching an era—and a part of ourselves—walk away.

Yet, in true football fashion, the story did not end there.

What followed was a humbling reset. A return to the basics. La Masia kids stepping up when there was no other choice. Pedri, Gavi, Araújo, Balde, Lamine Yamal—names that reminded us why we fell in love with this club in the first place. Not because they were perfect, but because they played with hunger, innocence, and belief.

There were still setbacks. Financial limitations. European disappointments. Growing pains. But slowly, something familiar began to re-emerge—a sense of direction. A team trying to play football the right way again. A club forced to look inward instead of buying its way out of problems.

Supporting Barça over these years has been a lesson in patience and perspective. The highs don’t feel routine anymore. The lows hurt more, but they also feel more honest. Perhaps this is what growing older with a football club looks like—less entitlement, more gratitude.

Returning to this blog now feels appropriate. Not because everything is perfect again, but because the story is worth telling once more. Barça’s journey since 2016 mirrors that of many fans: moments of pride, periods of silence, and the quiet hope that things can still be rebuilt with the right values.

This space may have been dormant, but the passion never really left. And as long as FC Barcelona continues to evolve—stumble, learn, and fight—there will always be something worth writing about.

I’m back. Let’s see where this next chapter takes us.