Welcome to our new blog series of Fantasy 5-A-Side, in which we take legendary clubs from the game of football and build a dream 5-a-side line-up of their past and present players. We pick them based on their achievements for the club in question and also their impact on the game as a whole, meaning their best work doesn’t necessarily have to have happened at the club we are talking about, but you’ll see what we mean as we go on. Similarly, we are picking these players in their prime, meaning players now in their 70s/80s aren’t rocking around the AstroTurf with their walking stick.

Starting off the series we have Barcelona, a club who have a huge history despite their current turbulent times. Most of the greats of the game have played at some point on the hallowed turf of the Nou Camp, and so picking just 5 was much more difficult than we thought it would be.

As with everything we do, these are based on our personal opinion, so we are obviously more biased to the late 90s, 00s and 2010s which we have much more knowledge about, so please don’t be offended if we miss out a legend of the 1930s, as we simply don’t possess that knowledge. Despite that, if you have any comments to make on our selection, or want to tell us you selections for the squad, head over to Twitter (@NextGoalWinBlog) and tell us what you think.

Goalkeeper: Andoni Zubizarreta

It is incredibly tempting when narrowing down the 5 Barcelona players to build a team with to ignore the goalkeeper as the rest can probably hold onto the ball long enough to make the position redundant, or at least outscore the opponents even without a no.1. Despite this, with these squads I decided I should always include the often-overlooked position as it would be unfair to ignore such a crucial member of the team. With that, the man who takes his place between the sticks is one who has such a legacy and history at the club and in Spanish football, Andoni Zubizarreta.

As La Liga’s record appearance holder with 622 games under his belt in Spain, and also holding the record for most clean sheets (233), he has a huge history in Spanish football, and with 8 seasons of his 18-year career at Barcelona, there’s nobody better suited to take the gloves in this side.

A part of Cruyff’s team who ended Barcelona’s wait for European Cup glory, he is also a 4x La Liga champion with the club (6x in total through his career). Joining the club in 1986 for a record fee of 1.7million euros at the time, he was an almost ever-present presence for the club, missing just 4 games between 1990-1994 when the club won 4 consecutive titles.

As mentioned previously, we were tempted to pick a team without a keeper in this side, however I’m sure most would agree Zubizarreta is more than deserving of the place.

Defence: Carles Puyol (C)

Playing in defence and captaining the side, is a man who I would probably follow into battle with his attitude on the pitch, Carles Puyol, a no-nonsense defender who’s drive has led his team to huge successes. We’ve all probably seen the clips of him organising his defence when Barcelona were already 4 or 5 goals ahead, but determined to keep a clean sheet and do his job was so important that he couldn’t allow himself or others to switch off. Therefore, I’ve always admired the way Puyol played the game and his attitude towards the job of central defender and captain of such a successful club.

By his own admission, other defenders may have stronger abilities in certain attributes (technique, pace, strength), however he understood his hard-working attitude and mentality could allow him to compete with anyone in his position or who he would come up against. This attitude and obvious talent led to not only huge praise from his peers, but an incredible trophy collection from his 20-year career.

A Barcelona player from his youth who worked his way from the C team to leading the first team in their most successful period in history, Puyol helped the club to 6 La Liga titles, 3 Champions Leagues, 6 domestic cups and a few Club World Cups alongside his 2008 and 2010 successes with the Spanish national team.

I always possess a huge respect for a one club player who have stayed at the top of a giant of a club like Puyol at Barcelona, and Puyol’s determination and work ethic would make him perfect for a 5-a-side squad where most of the defensive duties will be on his shoulders. He knows his role and would surely perform it perfectly in this fantasy squad.

Midfield: Xavi & Andreas Iniesta

In midfield we have opted for the greatest pairing to ever do the business. Legends of the game for club and country, this duo of Xavi and Iniesta (arguably with Busquets also) have been crucial to one of the best sides the sport has ever seen, Barcelona have ever had and also for their country during the dominant Spain run between 2008-2012. You simply can’t have one without the other and they have complimented each other’s games so well throughout history. The 2000s/2010s saw some of the greatest midfield talents of all-time, but these 2 were right up there as the very best.

Both coming through the ranks of the youth teams, B teams and into the first team, Xavi and Iniesta spent 17 and 16 years respectively in Barcelona’s first team before leaving to see out their careers in Qatar and Japan, and in this nearly 2 decades, they won just about everything possible and played some of the best football most fans and neutrals have ever witnessed. A combined 1441 Barcelona appearances, 142 Barcelona goals and 362 career assists between the two, they have a trophy cabinet to rival anybody in the sport.

Xavi as the deep lying playmaker with Iniesta as the attacking midfield threat, their combined vision, passing ability and creative footballing minds created some great moments and helped the huge attacking names at the club in being so dominant. In our 5-a-side team, these 2 could quite easily keep the ball throughout and just pass the opponent to death. There are other midfielders we considered, but thinking of a traditional 5-a-side setup of 2 midfielders means we couldn’t have one without the other, and Xavi and Iniesta make our 5.

Attack: Lionel Messi

We could have had Maradona, Cruyff, Kubala, Ronaldinho, Neymar, Suarez, Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Rodríguez, Eto’o to name a few, but of course it has to be the greatest player of all-time (in our opinion), and particularly in his time at Barcelona he produced some absolute magic and has just about every attacking record at the club, and most in La Liga history also.

La Liga’s top scorer of all-time, in a single season, in a calendar year, most assists of all-time, in a single season, most hat-tricks of all-time and in a single season and pretty much any other variation of those records you can think of all belong to Leo Messi, and if that’s not enough reason for why he’s our selected attacker then how about 778 appearances and 672 goals for the club in a 17 year run in the first team. An absolute great of the game, and the numbers only add to the brilliance and magic of watching him run through defenders like they were never there, and I can only imagine in a 5-a-side he could pretty much win games all on his own.

With 10 La Liga titles, 4 Champions Leagues, 14 domestic cups, 3 Super Cups and 3 Club World Cups to his name at Barcelona, he is arguably one of the most decorated players in their history, he is a legend of the game and an icon of the club. When someone says Barcelona, you instantly think of Messi and for that reason he must make it into the 5-a-side squad.

As he’s aged, he is also adding a new element to his game of dropping back into a more attacking midfield role which only adds more strings to his bow as he can pick out unthinkable passes and his link-up with the midfield maestros of Xavi and Iniesta is the pairing I would love to see once again.

Don’t forget to head over to Twitter (@NextGoalWinBlog) or Instagram (@NextGoalWin) to tell us who’d make your Barcelona dream team.