Eric Abidal
- Thread starter Barcaman
- Start date
spark
New member
But Bojan left while Pep was here. So did Oriol who left as a direct result of Pep signing Mascherano to replace Yaya. Fontas didnt get any playing time under Pep and then he got injured. Adriano, Alexis and Cesc were all players Pep wanted, so as Neymar who he even tried to sign at Bayern. The board did a lot of things wrong but a lot of these things listed have nothing to do with them .
khaled_a_d
Senior Member
Thanks for everything Abi ,gr8 defender who always played with heart
GQ Italia INTERVIEW with ABIDAL back in 2011
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WHY ME? On a cold Winter’s day in 2011, Éric was struck hard by the unmovable force of destiny. Cristiano Ronaldo is running in your direction and you don’t know which way you should go up against him? Something like that. Sudden thoughts rushing through your mind at super speed. “You have cancer, liver cancer. I have to operate.” The head of the Barcelona medical staff, Josep Fuster Obregon, used those precise words, like he was diagnosing him with dermatitis or something. You’re 31, in your prime physically, at the top of the world football-wise, you’re living the dream, and suddenly you have liver cancer.
“Fear. At first there was only fear,” he explains. “But then emerged the fighter in me. You’ve been fighting your whole life. To rise out of your neighborhood, to find a job, to find yourself a place within the team, to hold on to that place, to win the Champions League. This was no different. I immediately told my wife: “I’m not giving up, I’m gonna fight this. Don’t worry.” Doctor Fuster told me: “I’ll operate next week.” “No,” I told him. “No, tomorrow. First thing tomorrow. I don’t want time to think it over. Remove that tumor.”
Éric himself probably doesn’t realize what he just went through, and out of modesty he doesn’t even try to define it. A mystical experience? A voyage into the heart and spiritual core of things? A brutal rite of passage? Probably all of the above, and more besides. Since that day, everyday Éric meets people, common people, normal people: and everyone has a word of encouragement, a look of comfort to spare him. He is not only a superstar now, he is also a normal man. Éric, hospital patient. “I’ve been touring hospitals for years, with FCB, visiting the the ill, visiting orphans. It’s an obligation for us to bring a smile to people who are out of luck. For years I spoke the same words of comfort to other people that they are now telling me. In a way, I was prepared. I knew what to say, and what to do. I had to explain it to my wife. She was under an incredible pressure: she received hundreds of calls of people who wanted to know how I was but were scared of the answer. I told her to keep calm, that it would be okay. “We’ve met so many people who survived cancer and are ok”".
He also comforted a seventeen-year-old kid who shared the same room with him at the hospital. “I comforted him because it was a way to keep strong, you know. Afraid? There was no time to be afraid. You have no idea how people treated me: FCB supporters, teammates. They were fantastic. I realized that everybody has a friend, a relative or a neighbor who’s been through all of this. I learned that it’s something normal, that that’s ilfe. It can happen to anyone. No one is safe from it. I never once thought “why me”, it would have been dishonest. The day Puel came to see me play, I didn’t think “why me”: there is no difference. Life: it can take from you, and then g. Yoive back to you the next day. You just have to accept that, and give thanks every single day.”
CAPTAIN. It was crazy, we were only at the quarter finals, but like Éric states, dramatic turns-of-events are always welcome. An hour before the game against Manchester United started, he didn’t know yet he was going to play. “Guardiola showed us the last videos, gave some last-minute advice, read out loud the players’ shortlist. No one looked surprised. No one but me, obviously. I sought Puyol out, I walked up to him and asked “Why aren’t you playing? Did you know he was going to leave you out?” He looked me in the eyes and said “I’m not important right now. You are what matters; don’t worry about me.” Do you have any idea what a fucking badass we have as captain? Do you? Champions League final, they tell him he’ll be warming the bench, and he’s the one comforting me! This is Barcelona. And of course I didn’t know I would be the one to lift the cup, everything happened in a blur, I could hardly grasp what was going on. Do you have any idea…? I had cancer, I had surgery, I played the CL final, and I lifted the cup, all in the span of three months. What more could I ask?”
From an outsider’s point of view, it’s hard to tell what’s gluing them all together. There is something in the basic philosophy of the Catalan club, of which Guardiola is a perfect incarnation. “The club, the team, our teammates come before everything else. We earn a lot of money, but we still train with the eagerness we had as kids. I’ve seen so many footballers who become rich and every sentence they utter begins with “I, I, me..”. Well, no one at Barça is like that. We make sure we remind each other this: it’s a game, they’re paying us to do something beautiful, let’s do it seriously but without taking each other too seriously. It’s a fact, some footballers are real snobs. It gets tiresome sometimes. I know, you want me to talk about Mourinho: he’s exasperating, but in his case, it’s all part of the strategy to reach victory. I’ve taken his side more than once in the past: this year though, to be honest, I hardly ever did.
BERLIN, 2006. Éric laughs out loud when I mention the World Cup they lost at the penalties. “You Italians are incredible… always making excuses!” he says. But I am merely using the example to introduce my next point: pain. Different kinds of pain, but pain nonetheless: facing cancer, losing a World Cup final like that, not being able to play the CL final in Rome in 2009 because of a suspension. He shakes his head. “You’re wrong. You feel no pain when you lose a World Cup, not individually anyway, because you win and you lose as a team. That is what I’ve been taught. When I got a red card against Chelsea, I lost the chance to play, but Barcelona as a team didn’t. This is important. I was sitting on the stands in Rome and I was happy. There’s nothing painful about that. When you have cancer, it’s kind of the same. It’s not a one-man game, it’s teamwork. Without the support of my family, of my supporters, of everyday people, of my fellow patients, and of my teammates of course, I wouldn’t have won against cancer.”
FAREWELL ASTON MARTIN. Manuel Estiarte, former water polo champion with Italy and today’s FC Barcelona PR manager, warned me about it: “Abi is special.” It’s true. There is no empty rhetoric in Éric’s words, he’s fighting hard against being labeled a “hero”. He’s full of humanity. And there’s that feeling that for him, something has changed forever.
“What did I learn from it all?” he smiles. “To eat. To take better care of my body. Maybe I even learned how to live. I sold my race cars, even my beloved Aston Martin: you can do better things with your money. There are lots of people who have cancer or AIDS who need it, and I try to give my part because I’m a privileged. But I do it quietly. If you give twenty Euro to a beggar on the street, it’s a private affair: between you, him, and God. No one else. Oh, and I have learned not to get too worked up. If my wife is showering me with words and my daughters keep whining at me, it’s okay. Every cloud has a silver lining, there’s something good in everything. What good can there be in cancer, you ask? If it ever happens to me again, I’ll know exactly how to behave. I see things differently now, I’ve matured. Life is full of paths and you have to follow them, accept them, and not complain about it. It’s like getting angry because you screwed up a penalty shot. Pretty stupid, right?”
http://community.livejournal.com/_fcbarcelona_/363232.html
---------
WHY ME? On a cold Winter’s day in 2011, Éric was struck hard by the unmovable force of destiny. Cristiano Ronaldo is running in your direction and you don’t know which way you should go up against him? Something like that. Sudden thoughts rushing through your mind at super speed. “You have cancer, liver cancer. I have to operate.” The head of the Barcelona medical staff, Josep Fuster Obregon, used those precise words, like he was diagnosing him with dermatitis or something. You’re 31, in your prime physically, at the top of the world football-wise, you’re living the dream, and suddenly you have liver cancer.
“Fear. At first there was only fear,” he explains. “But then emerged the fighter in me. You’ve been fighting your whole life. To rise out of your neighborhood, to find a job, to find yourself a place within the team, to hold on to that place, to win the Champions League. This was no different. I immediately told my wife: “I’m not giving up, I’m gonna fight this. Don’t worry.” Doctor Fuster told me: “I’ll operate next week.” “No,” I told him. “No, tomorrow. First thing tomorrow. I don’t want time to think it over. Remove that tumor.”
Éric himself probably doesn’t realize what he just went through, and out of modesty he doesn’t even try to define it. A mystical experience? A voyage into the heart and spiritual core of things? A brutal rite of passage? Probably all of the above, and more besides. Since that day, everyday Éric meets people, common people, normal people: and everyone has a word of encouragement, a look of comfort to spare him. He is not only a superstar now, he is also a normal man. Éric, hospital patient. “I’ve been touring hospitals for years, with FCB, visiting the the ill, visiting orphans. It’s an obligation for us to bring a smile to people who are out of luck. For years I spoke the same words of comfort to other people that they are now telling me. In a way, I was prepared. I knew what to say, and what to do. I had to explain it to my wife. She was under an incredible pressure: she received hundreds of calls of people who wanted to know how I was but were scared of the answer. I told her to keep calm, that it would be okay. “We’ve met so many people who survived cancer and are ok”".
He also comforted a seventeen-year-old kid who shared the same room with him at the hospital. “I comforted him because it was a way to keep strong, you know. Afraid? There was no time to be afraid. You have no idea how people treated me: FCB supporters, teammates. They were fantastic. I realized that everybody has a friend, a relative or a neighbor who’s been through all of this. I learned that it’s something normal, that that’s ilfe. It can happen to anyone. No one is safe from it. I never once thought “why me”, it would have been dishonest. The day Puel came to see me play, I didn’t think “why me”: there is no difference. Life: it can take from you, and then g. Yoive back to you the next day. You just have to accept that, and give thanks every single day.”
CAPTAIN. It was crazy, we were only at the quarter finals, but like Éric states, dramatic turns-of-events are always welcome. An hour before the game against Manchester United started, he didn’t know yet he was going to play. “Guardiola showed us the last videos, gave some last-minute advice, read out loud the players’ shortlist. No one looked surprised. No one but me, obviously. I sought Puyol out, I walked up to him and asked “Why aren’t you playing? Did you know he was going to leave you out?” He looked me in the eyes and said “I’m not important right now. You are what matters; don’t worry about me.” Do you have any idea what a fucking badass we have as captain? Do you? Champions League final, they tell him he’ll be warming the bench, and he’s the one comforting me! This is Barcelona. And of course I didn’t know I would be the one to lift the cup, everything happened in a blur, I could hardly grasp what was going on. Do you have any idea…? I had cancer, I had surgery, I played the CL final, and I lifted the cup, all in the span of three months. What more could I ask?”
From an outsider’s point of view, it’s hard to tell what’s gluing them all together. There is something in the basic philosophy of the Catalan club, of which Guardiola is a perfect incarnation. “The club, the team, our teammates come before everything else. We earn a lot of money, but we still train with the eagerness we had as kids. I’ve seen so many footballers who become rich and every sentence they utter begins with “I, I, me..”. Well, no one at Barça is like that. We make sure we remind each other this: it’s a game, they’re paying us to do something beautiful, let’s do it seriously but without taking each other too seriously. It’s a fact, some footballers are real snobs. It gets tiresome sometimes. I know, you want me to talk about Mourinho: he’s exasperating, but in his case, it’s all part of the strategy to reach victory. I’ve taken his side more than once in the past: this year though, to be honest, I hardly ever did.
BERLIN, 2006. Éric laughs out loud when I mention the World Cup they lost at the penalties. “You Italians are incredible… always making excuses!” he says. But I am merely using the example to introduce my next point: pain. Different kinds of pain, but pain nonetheless: facing cancer, losing a World Cup final like that, not being able to play the CL final in Rome in 2009 because of a suspension. He shakes his head. “You’re wrong. You feel no pain when you lose a World Cup, not individually anyway, because you win and you lose as a team. That is what I’ve been taught. When I got a red card against Chelsea, I lost the chance to play, but Barcelona as a team didn’t. This is important. I was sitting on the stands in Rome and I was happy. There’s nothing painful about that. When you have cancer, it’s kind of the same. It’s not a one-man game, it’s teamwork. Without the support of my family, of my supporters, of everyday people, of my fellow patients, and of my teammates of course, I wouldn’t have won against cancer.”
FAREWELL ASTON MARTIN. Manuel Estiarte, former water polo champion with Italy and today’s FC Barcelona PR manager, warned me about it: “Abi is special.” It’s true. There is no empty rhetoric in Éric’s words, he’s fighting hard against being labeled a “hero”. He’s full of humanity. And there’s that feeling that for him, something has changed forever.
“What did I learn from it all?” he smiles. “To eat. To take better care of my body. Maybe I even learned how to live. I sold my race cars, even my beloved Aston Martin: you can do better things with your money. There are lots of people who have cancer or AIDS who need it, and I try to give my part because I’m a privileged. But I do it quietly. If you give twenty Euro to a beggar on the street, it’s a private affair: between you, him, and God. No one else. Oh, and I have learned not to get too worked up. If my wife is showering me with words and my daughters keep whining at me, it’s okay. Every cloud has a silver lining, there’s something good in everything. What good can there be in cancer, you ask? If it ever happens to me again, I’ll know exactly how to behave. I see things differently now, I’ve matured. Life is full of paths and you have to follow them, accept them, and not complain about it. It’s like getting angry because you screwed up a penalty shot. Pretty stupid, right?”
http://community.livejournal.com/_fcbarcelona_/363232.html
. What a sad day.
Adding to that : Bartomeu on April 18, 2013: "We consider Abidal only as a player. We are not thinking of any institutional position."
JamDav1982
Senior Member
In what way are the club heartless??
They gave him a new contract when he was diagnosed with cancer knowing full well he may not play again.
The club were brilliant to him and I obviously they now no longer feel he can play the top level and have allowed him to move elsewhere and try to find playing time with a job waiting for him the moment he wants it.
The club have been phenomenal to Abidal.
SEvolution
New member
Finally, something sensible. Pheww!
JonM
New member
On what ground? As long as Abidal doesn't come forward saying he was mistreated by the club, there's no story. We have no idea what the demands were on each side and why they couldn't come to an agreement. It's all speculation.
archimidis
New member
We did well, letting Abi go. The doctors told him that he shouldn't play! Based on that Rossel and Zubi didn't offer him another contract as a player. And for all those that say this is a disgrace and we are not still mes que un club, they should consider that we stayed next to him while he started having health problems and he had his operations and recovery! That is what makes us more than a club!
After all, Abidal was offered to return to the club when he retires. It is now up to him to decide, although he said that he will be back. The latter shows that was treated nice throughout his entire career in Barcelona.
After all, Abidal was offered to return to the club when he retires. It is now up to him to decide, although he said that he will be back. The latter shows that was treated nice throughout his entire career in Barcelona.
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