Blanco: During the day, I talked about the new season with Cruyff, but at night I watched him fired by Barcelona

French legend and former Barcelona player Blanco recently talked about his experience of joining Barcelona. Although Cruyff invited him to join, Blanco had never really worked with Son Claus in Barcelona.

In July 1996, Blanco joined Barcelona. But in the summer of that year, Cruyff left office because of a conflict with then-Barcelona club chairman Nunez.

Blanco recalled: "This matter is really contradictory. I was a free agent at the time and was about to play football at an English club. Suddenly one day, Mr. Cruyff called me and called my agent, and he told me not to sign the contract first. Cruyff wanted to convince me to join Barcelona, ​​and I really wanted to see him, and I wanted to talk to him.

"So I thought to myself, 'I'm going to Barcelona and sign the contract. ’ It was very interesting, I even got the contract at that time. When I arrived at Barcelona, ​​Cruyff said to me, ‘Well Laurent, you’re going to sign a two-year contract with us and we’ll play football like this. I'll take you to a restaurant tonight and let's talk about how to play football. ’But an hour later, he was fired.

"I was staying at the Hotel Juan Carlos I, and TV3 was talking about Cruyff's departure. I thought to myself, 'This is kidding', and I was simply incredible. After a while, Cruyff called me and he said, 'I'm not the head coach, I'm fine, but I've just been fired.'"

After playing for Barcelona for a season, Blanco returned to France to join Marseille in the summer of 1997.