While FC Barcelona are in Finland, Barça TV and fcbarcelona.com took the opportunity to interview Jari Litmanen at Hotel Kämp, where the players are staying in Helsinki. The greatest footballer Finland has ever produced said that “Barça always have great teams, and right now they’ve got the best two players in the world, Messi and Neymar”. But he reckons it’ll take time before we can pass judgement on Barça 2014/15, with so many changes following the departures of the likes of Valdés, Puyol, Cesc and Alexis.Luis Enrique was passionate player, a great player. And Xavi was very talented.
Litmanen was at Barça from 1999 to 2001, and played alongside Luis Enrique and Xavi Hernández, now FCB coach and captain. “When we were together, Luis Enrique was playing for Spain and Xavi was with the U21s. Luis Enrique was passionate player, a great player. And Xavi was very talented. He’s been at Barça for 15 years and is one of the best players the club has ever had.”I suffered a lot of injuries and was only at Barça for a short while
Thinking back to his years in an FCB shirt, the Finn said “it was the centenary year, so it was all very special. It’s a fantastic club but I suffered a lot of injuries and was only there for a short while.”
Litmanen ended by saying that Barça’s visit “is very important for Finland and Helsinki. Barça is one of the biggest and best teams in the world. The people are happy and a lot of them were waiting for the team’s arrival. I too am happy that Barça are here”
