Javier Fernandez has been left alone coaching the Badia Juvenil team this season. The team, that’s a fact, is doing great. Just like a poker pro, the team’s strategy has earned them a reputation of being great in the sport.They are the leaders of their league. But Sergio, his nephew, can not help as he had promised at the start of the season. “I will be your assistant,” said Sergio excited. The young boy, 20 years old, responsible, a fanatical football fan and a die-hard culé – he loved Figo until he betrayed him to dress in white – is the who idolized Xavi since he was a child and who is now playing at his side. Sergio Busquets, Javier’s nephew, can not go to his own town every weekend because eight months ago he embarked on a dizzying journey from Badia to the Spanish national team.

And, of course, he has no time for anything. A year and a half ago, Sergio didn’t play in the Tercera because he began the season injured. He did not want to put his family name on the shirt and so he decided to only use the letter B, from Busquets, for his father, and from Burgos, for his mother. A year ago, Guardiola opened the door of Barcelona B and six months ago, that of Barça. Every day is busier than the last. “If you stop and think calmly, you cannot understand what has happened. Since he was a child one could see that he was going to be a professional football player”, said Javier Fernandez on a cold winter’s night after coaching his team.

“Intuitive and simple”
Alongside Javier, leaving an anonymous lonely field in Badia, is Aitor Busquets. He is the brother of Sergio, the other son of Busi, the “goalkeeper without hands”, as he was defined by the French newspaper L’Equipe. None of them have followed the path of their father. Aitor is a left-winger and plays at Badia. Sergio is a skilled midfielder. And he amazes everyone. Guardiola was the first. “He is intuitive, he knows what he needs to do, his game is simple, he doesn’t lose the ball… But he has room for improvement,” says the coach.

In September, the day that he debuted with a tie at the Camp Nou against Racing (1-1), Cruyff’s eyes were illuminated. Hours later, his article in the newspaper announced something big. “Technically superior to Toure and Keita. Positionally, he seems like a veteran. With or without the ball. With the ball he made what is difficult look easy: he disposes of the ball with one or two touches. Without the ball, he gives us another lesson: that of being in the right place to intercept and running just to recover the ball. And all that while being young and inexperienced. The same sins of his coach”, wrote Johan. Back then, nobody believed in Sergio or in the young and inexperienced Guardiola.

Rejected in a test
Sergio, as a child, and despite being the son of, did not pass a test at Barça. And so he left for other fields (Badia, Barberà, Lleida and Jabac Terrassa). There, Rodri, ex-blaugrana player and ex-blaugrana coach, a wise men with a hoarse voice, tortured the ears of Barcelona youth coach Quique Costas every week. “Come, you have to see the son of Busi! You have to see him!” Finally, after much insistence, he went to see him and brought him back to play with the Juvenil team. From being a child that no one wanted, now they were going out to look for him. He rose from the earth to heaven.

The rest is known: he graduated to the first team, his contract has been renewed until 2013, with a buy-out clause of €80 million, he plays defensive pivot, a position that he revolutionized. In the past, small, imaginative and creative players came out of La Masia (Xavi, Iniesta, Cesc …). Now it is him. Tall (1.89 m = 6’2), powerful, capable of fusing the Barça style (thinking before you touch the ball) with the football of the neighborhood, of the street: he has provoked 18 yellow cards and two expulsions from his rivals.

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