-Gypsy King

Football: Graham Hunter examines the clash between Barcelona’s pauper, Quaresma, and the new prince of Madrid

When Barcelona set out to sign David Beckham last summer they deliberately set their sights on the crown prince of European football. By the time the dust settled on an extraordinary electoral campaign at FC Barcelona, Beckham had joined Real Madrid and the Catalan club had signed not part of the continental footballing monarchy but a genuine birthright-proclaiming gypsy.

His name is Ricardo Quaresma and you may know him as half of the pair of brilliant young Sporting Lisbon starlets which was completed by the, now, Manchester United winger Cristiano Ronaldo. Quaresma and his fathers’ side of the family are Roma gypsies, and proud of it.

As Beckham and Quaresma prepare to face each other next Saturday, when the England captain returns to the Camp Nou for only the third time since he was a 13-year-old on a Bobby Charlton scholarship, the comparison is stark. Madrid have a prodigious £15m per year megastar who is proving, week in and week out, that Sir Alex Ferguson misjudged his influence on a team when motivated and confident in his surroundings, while Barcelona have a raw, ball-greedy Portuguese under-21 international right winger.

One day Beckham is scoring his club’s 600th European goal, the next he is at Buckingham Palace picking up a gong – the royal treatment for England’s footballing prince.

For Quaresma it has been different – overcoming deep, prejudiced anti-Romany suspicion within the Barcelona squad, learning that his cute little ball tricks are at primary level and need to move up to PhD, and simply holding down a place in the side.

Quaresma talks happily about his ethnic heritage, despite the abuse he knows it will bring. Recently he filmed a Catalan television docum-entary where the cameras went with him to a “gitano” community on the outskirts of Barcelona where the Roma locals welcomed him warmly. He played cards with the old men and spoke Romany.

He did so in the knowledge that although it will be Beckham, Luis Figo and Ronaldo who will be abused at the Camp Nou this Saturday, he must exist in a Catalunya which is deeply conservative and where Romanian gypsies are often harangued in the street as they beg.

“I am proud of my origins and I see no need to hide them,” Quaresma challenges. “My father and uncle were gypsy and so is my girlfriend and I am proud of that.”

On Saturday night you will see him with rings taped over because his superstition dictates that they never be taken off and, probably, with the ball remaining at his feet long after he should have passed it.

Although it is curious that Beckham’s replacement should be such an ethnic rarity in the footballing world of Stepford blandness the question when “El Clasico” comes to town is simple: “can he make the difference?”.

As long as he stays fit this weekend in Pamplona against Osasuna and in Wednesday’s Madrid derby, Beckham can make all the difference with his goals and assists.

And that is why he will get “the treatment”, more so than for the simple reason he rejected Barca and moved to their most hated rivals.

Ronaldinho, who should make it back from a four-game absence with a thigh muscle tear, has become the symbol of the new FC Barcelona and compensated almost every “Cule” who dreamed of the England captain wearing the St George/St Jordi cross on his chest for the next three years.

But as goals have flowed from Beckham there has at least been a realisation that it is from him, as much from Ronaldo or Raul, that the danger will come next weekend.

In competitive matches he has scored five goals and made six, with a number of others stemming from his passes even if he does not have the penultimate touch to let it be added to his six assists. Not bad numbers.

It was the Boixos Nois, Barcelona’s hard core, often right wing, ultra-base who drove the pelting of Figo with bicycle chains, mobile phones, bottles, batteries and that roasted suckling pig’s head last year.

Since Joan Laporta, the president who sailed home on the crest of Beckham-mania, took office however, the Boixos Nois have been clamped down upon – to the extent that just over two weeks ago he found death threats all over his apartment door and the pavement outside. “Laporta – our place is in the Camp Nou and yours is in the grave,” read one claim.

Beckham will be given the strongest possible private security from his club, as will all the Real Madrid players .

As for the football, although it is almost two decades since Real won at the Camp Nou in La Liga, the reigning champ-ions should do so this time.

Barcelona have a glass jaw and if they go behind in a match, they almost never win .

While Barca lost leaders like Frank de Boer, Gaizka Mendieta and Juan Pablo Sorin during the summer Real added one in Beckham. His coach, Carlos Queiroz, never had any doubts that he would bowl over the Bernabeu – given time and some shrewd advice.
“There was some mean spirited nonsense written about David in his early weeks here and I knew that he and I needed to get the doubts out of his mind,” the coach said.
“I told David that when Zinedine Zidane came here in summer 2002 he was indisputably the best player on the planet. Yet it still took Zidane three months of hell, not three days, to settle in and during that time there were occasions when he was not in the team.
“Stupid people were writing then that Zidane is the kind of player who is not good enough for Real.
“I already knew that Beckham was not only good enough to play here but that he would prove it too.
“I wanted him to realise that if he keeps things simple he would bring things to this team far sooner than trying to become a player he is not.
“So what I didn’t want is for David’s concentration on winning to be broken by him thinking he suddenly has to fulfil a load of different people’s expectations for him.
“Beckham is a great player and has become a great Real Madrid player – by staying David Beckham.”

Let’s wait and see whether anyone wants to pay homage to Beckham in Catalunya. (30 November 2003)

Cigano Tattoos

Quantas tatuagens tem?

Quaresma: Tenho seis, mas vou fazer mais. Todas as minhas tatuagens têm um significado e estou a pensar fazer pelo menos mais duas ainda este ano. Depois logo se vê. Tenho nos braços, nas costas, nas pernas. A primeira que fiz foi uma tribal, parecida com uma cruz. Tinha 17 anos e estava a aparecer no Sporting. Tenho dois anjos, a cara do meu irmão, o nome dele, o nome da minha mãe, das minhas irmãs, do meu pai… São as pessoas mais importantes da minha vida. Um dia que tenha filhos vou fazer com o nome deles. Ainda tenho espaço…. [risos]. Adoro tatuagens e tenho pancada pelos carros. E gosto muito de relógios e de ouro.