Fabregas the waif changes the shape of football
Arsenal had won yet again, and Arsène Wenger,
the
ir manager, was loafing in
the
players' tunnel, relaxed, or as relaxed as
the
Frenchman ever gets. His prodigy Cesc Fabregas had scored again. An acquaintance of Wenger's also in
the
tunnel asked him why it was that Fabregas - always a wonderful passer and tackler - had now begun scoring too.
"I'll tell you a story about that," replied
the
manager. "I told him this summer, '
the
number on your back is four [traditionally
the
defensive midfielder's number]. So at Arsenal you'll be judged on your defensive positions,
the
tackles you make. Get that right and
the
passes and goals will look after
the
mselves'."
From
the
n on
the
boy began scoring. Wenger's point was that he had taken
the
pressure off Fabregas's goal-scoring by telling him to worry about something else. The manager paused, before adding his punchline: "Last year he missed 13 [or however many it was] scoring opportunities." Wenger loves statistics as much as he loves football.
The 20-year-old Catalan has scored less often in recent weeks, yet he is now
the
complete player, who over
the
next three months will be central to deciding whe
the
r Arsenal win both
the
Premier League and
the
Champions League. More than that, Fabregas represents a new shape of footballer:
the
pibe , or little boy, as leader.
Though Barcelona is a giant club,
Catalonia
hardly ever produces great footballers. There was excitement,
the
refore, when a 15-year-old urchin who had first watched Barça as a baby in his grandfa
the
r's arms began starring in
the
Masia , or farmhouse, for
the
club's young players.
Then Arsenal pinched him. With hindsight that was inevitable. Like
the
old East German Stasi, Arsenal's scouts see everything. In 1999 I went to watch under-17s play under-17s in a little
Soweto
stadium. It was a scary time and place, and a marginal match, but in
the
main stand were five o
the
r white men: Arsenal coaches.
The Arsenal scout who spotted Fabregas was Francis Cagigao. The son of Spaniards who emigrated to London in
the
1970s, Cagigao played for
the
Gunners in
the
1988 FA Youth Cup final, but now scours
Europe
for
the
m.
Soon after Fabregas was spotted, he became Arsenal's youngest ever debutant at 16. Then he was 's youngest international in 70 years. It all seemed odd. The teenager was built like a waif and stood barely 5ft 7in tall. "An unproven fea
the
rweight," wrote his
the
n team-mate Ashley Cole. In those days, in 2005 or 2006, central midfield was like
the
line of scrimmage in American football, a "pit" where monsters such as Arsenal's Patrick Vieira roamed. The physical takeover of football, as in most sports from tennis to baseball, looked unstoppable.
Yet in just two years it has been reversed. The turning point occurred in Berlin just after 6.30pm on June 30 2006, during Germany versus Argentina at
the
last World Cup, when
the
Argentine coach José Pekerman sent on his big striker Julio Ricardo Cruz (6ft 2in) instead of Fabregas's old Masia playmate Lionel Messi (5ft 5in). Messi, with his small turning circle, would have twisted
the
giant German central defenders silly. But
the
y ate up Cruz, and knocked out . The era of
the
boy, or pibe - as Argentines traditionally call little creative players - had begun.
At Arsenal, Fabregas has replaced Vieira in central midfield. The Catalan, now about 5ft 8in tall but still built like a waif, has led a fea
the
rweight conquest of Europe's biggest clubs: Messi and Bojan are at Barcelona, Robinho (5ft 6in) and Wesley Sneijder (5ft 6in) at Real Madrid, Carlos Tevez (5ft 6in on a good day) at Manchester United, Diego (5ft 6in) at Werder Bremen, Frank Ribéry (5ft 6½in) at Bayern Munich and Sergio Aguero (5ft 7in) at Atletico Madrid. 's new playmaker Samir Nasri is 5ft 7in, but a waif like Fabregas. None of
the
se pibes is older than 24.
It turns out that amid
the
galloping supermen of modern football, only little men slight enough to twist can find
the
remaining inches of space. That's why
the
French coach Raynald Denoueix says clubs are now scouting shorties. Small is beautiful.
Robin van Persie, Arsenal's Dutch forward, explains this eloquently. "Cesc is slow," he told
the
Dutch magazine Hard Gras. "He's one of
the
slowest here. But he's still
the
quickest of us all. He always thinks two seconds ahead. I sometimes think, 'why doesn't
the
opponent take
the
ball off him?' And
the
n he comes, peep, with a very little feint. In training I catch up with him and think, 'now I'll get you'. And with his toe he gives - peep - a very little pass for a one-two. That gets him ano
the
r metre-and-a-half. So irritating!"
Before Arsenal and AC Milan drew 0-0 in
the
Champions League this week,
Milan
's Kaká told me that Fabregas was "a new generation of player". Kaká explained: "I mean, he's complete. He can defend, he can attack, he's got a good shot with his right, with his left. He can do everything. Modern player." And Fabregas is still a good seven years off his peak.
Th
By Simon Kuper
Published: February 23 2008
e Financial Times Limited 2008
