To fix the problem of 8 years ago, when 16-year-old Francesc Fabregas Soler with a clear conscience was freewheelingly released to Arsenal London, the Catalan club had to part with 29 million Euros for half of the rights to the midfielder. In addition, the holder of the Champions League later has to transfer to the Gunners two 5 million bonus tranches. In concluding the agreement, Barcelona has added a point to it, according to which all those wishing to invite Fabregas to their team in the next 5 years will have to gather a modest 200 million euros – this is the current sum of compensation for terminating the contract with talented Spanish player.

FIFTH OUT OF A TAXI

Even the most perfect system has its flaws. The Barcelona football school roars all over the world, a conveyor for training “stars”, each year rubberstamping promising adolescents, but – such a calamity – the core team does not have time to digest them. At the time there was no place in the team for Gerard Pique, who, almost forgotten, then had to be liberated from Manchester United. The defender was taken as a substitute for Argentinean Gabriel Milito, but it turned out that the latter became a stand-in.

BY THE WAY...

Cesc Fabregas was born on 4 May 1987. He hit a ball for the first time at the age of five.

In the summer of 2003 he became the top scorer and best assist provider at the FIFA U-17 World Championship.

On 28 October 2003 Fabregas became the youngest Arsenal player in the club’s history, debuting at the age of 16 years and 177 days.

In 2005 he became the best young European football player (under 21).

On 14 June 2006, the day of the match with the Ukrainian national team, he was 19 years and 41 days old – there were no Spaniards younger than him at the World Cup.

His greatest achievements are – 2008 European Champion, 2010 World Champion. It was he who made the decisive pass to Iniesta in the World Cup Final.

Now, it seems Josep Guardiola found the latest card for the game patience. The backbone of the current Barcelona will now be held up by the trio of Pique – Fabregas – Messi. It was, incidentally, the same in 2003, when the football school of Barca did not know equals in its age in Spain, and the 17-year-old national team crushed everyone at the World Cup. Then the world learned for the first time of the young child prodigy Cesc, who with five goals scored became the best scorer and assist provider in the tournament. A worthy change was growing up for Xavi, but what to do with Fabregas when Xavi had just felt the taste of the game at the time?..

...The guy in provincial Arenys de Mar was first of all spotted by Barcelona representative Rodolfo Borrell. Watching a game involving a local team in September 1997, the expert asked the coach about a rookie who was running in the centre of the field. It turned out that he had played for the team for several years, and during the last visit Borrell had not seen him for one reason – they hid the guy in a locker room so that the scout did not take the guy away. Because, according to Spanish rules, a youth team player, who played five matches for it, cannot play for another team for a year. But Borrell did not give up, and arranged so that a guy came for training to Barcelona on Mondays and took part in friendly matches.

Almost a year Cesc every Monday travelled 55 km in a bus and hoped that it would be over some time. “I got up at 7 am”, Fabregas recalls. “After school I earned a bit distributing leaflets, then went to training and came home at half past eleven. I quickly ate, went through my schoolbooks and went to bed to repeat this again in the morning.” Cesc, nevertheless, trained hard, and before the new educational year he was offered a move to Barcelona football school. Here Pique was already training, and in a few years Messi also joined them.

“Messi came to us later”, Fabregas recalls. “He was very small, was always silent. And then suddenly spoke. We had often played PlayStation together...”

Cesc recalls his childhood with a smile. “There was not a lot of time, as besides training I had to open my mouth at school at least sometimes”, the midfielder recalls. “To training, when being late, I got a taxi. We were met by the guard in this way: “Five in a taxi have arrived...”

Quote

“His imagination is comparable to the one that Michel Platini had. This is a great compliment to Fabregas. Cesc is just beginning his career, and we all know the status Platini ended his with. Potentially Cesc has all the qualities inherent to Platini. However, to reach such heights he must work and improve.”

(Arsene Wenger, September 2007)

Fabregas already had to make a fateful decision when he was 16 years of age. During the above mentioned Youth World Cup representatives of Arsenal came to him. The then club president, Joan Laporta is accused over the fact that Cesc left Barcelona, seduced by a million proposed by the London club. The midfield, however, denies it, stressing that he made the decision himself. But he intended to come back for sure. In his closet in his father's house he still keeps a T-shirt with the number “4” and an inscription by Guardiola: “One beautiful day you will become the new ‘four’ of Barca”.

PRODIGAL GENIUS

He had to go to return on a white horse. In London, Fabregas was accompanied with discoveries at each step. Because he was a discovery himself. Cesc concluded a contract with Arsenal on 11 September 2003, and in two weeks he had already been on the field in the League Cup match against Rotherham. In the next round, he became the youngest scorer in the history of Arsenal – the Gunners then loaded Wolverhampton with five goals. Gunners coach Arsene Wenger later started to send the boy to the main team in the Premier League matches, and when Patrick Vieira left for Juventus he, despite the age, had no more competitors in the club left.

“The first five months were hard”, Fabregas recalls. “In England life is very different. Here at seven in the evening they begin to prepare for sleep. In Spain they only get to a disco at three at night, and really hitting a bar before this. I, however, am not into this. I do not like dancing and I have enough communication with my loved Carla. She is a psychologist, so I can forgo going to the club psychotherapist.”

4 facts from the biography of Fabregas

*In the Barcelona youth team his comrade Gerard Pique often joined attacks and scored 50 goals. Of these 40 were from passes by Cesc.

*At a young age he thought up a slogan for himself “Cesc Fabregas, handsome from a rooftop!”.

*On the eve of EURO-2008 he organized his own television show on the Sky Sports channel. It involved Cesc’s parents, club team mates, Arsene Wenger and British comedian Matt Lucas.

*In Barcelona was nicknamed the Pimple, in Arsenal – the Architect.

The star time for Cesc came in the 2005/06 season. Arsenal with 18-year-old Fabregas in the team kicked Real Madrid out of the last sixteen of the Champions League, and in the next round Cesc even scored a goal against Juventus. In that year the Gunners reached the finals, where, unfortunately, they lost to Barcelona – 1:2. The midfielder said that he did not have any special feelings as he dreamed of victory for Arsenal. However, in a few years his opinion has changed. “I am grateful to Arsene Wenger, partners in the club, but I do not like one thing – Asrenal does not win anything. At some point I get pleasure from the game, I rejoice when we are fighting in four tournaments at once. However, there is a problem: the team should win something. For this is a skill, as you can be showing high-quality football but ultimately fail to achieve anything. Sometimes the board of directors must draw conclusions: either they are bringing up players or are fighting for titles.

Puyol once said that he did not win a thing for 26 years. We must stick with it and work. And so I did, because a long time ago I decided that if I leave Arsenal it will only be to join Barcelona.”

RETURN TO THE NOU CAMP

Barcelona was not chasing Fabregas in vain. Here everything is familiar to him, so it is no surprise that his debut took place in the first match – against Real, in which the Catalan club won the Super Cup of Spain. But Guardiola was won over not only by that. Cesc is an almost perfect subordinate. He was not seen in the company of people with a dubious reputation, loves football more than, as he jokes, he does his beloved – Carla Donna, works up a sweat, does not lounge in discos and is satisfied with homemade soup, and, that is noteworthy, do not even imagine what star illness is.

He returned home with only one desire – to win. In London he, despite the successes of the Spanish national team in recent years, became very hungry for victories. “I rarely remember the World Cup in South Africa”, Cesc said. “That success is already in the past. Teams that I play in are at the top. So efforts should be put to retain these positions. The coming goals are victory in the Spanish Championship, Champions League and EURO 2012."