JOE McGINNISS

Today’s 3-1 win over Manchester United–and the score barely hints at their superiority throughout–puts the icing on the sweet, sweet cake that Barça have been serving to soccer/futbol/football fans around the world for many years.

To watch Barcelona in action is to witness not only a sporting event, but performance art at the highest level.

Yes, of course, there is the great Lionel Messi, at age 23 already perhaps the greatest player in the history of the sport, so splendidly portrayed by Jere Longman in the New York Times last week.

But today’s triumph, like all of Barça’s finest moments, arose not only from acts of individual brilliance, but from a degree of mental and physical teamwork–and from a level of psychic connection among teammates–seldom, if ever, seen before in any sport.

The motto of FC Barcelona is Més que un club–“More than a club.”

Barça paid for that in blood during the Spanish Civil War, when the city and the club were at the center of Catalonian resistance to Franco’s Madrid-based fascist regime.

But the team’s stunning triumph in the Champions League final makes today a day not for history lessons, but celebration.

If the current FC Barcelona were to adopt a new motto and theme song, nothing would be more fitting than Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy.”

That’s what their unique brand of artistry and athleticism bring to the world.

UPDATE:

Read about it from Paul Hayward in The Guardian here

and see the peerless Henry Winter’s story in The Telegraph here

All I can add is the new prayer I recite daily in thanks for the privilege of being able to watch Lionel Messi perform:

“God Bless The Mess.”