Cesc, Piqué and Messi: The fearsome generation of '87 at La Masia

The Masia has formed to big generations of footballers, and one of the most impressive was the one of the year 1987, in which they coincided players like Leo Messi, Gerard Hammered and Cesc Fàbregas. The last two carry years playing together, but the midfield player of Arenys of Sea has gone through the Arsenal, by Chelsea and, at present, plays in the ACE Monaco.

In an interview for L'Instrument, Cesc Fàbregas remembered vivencias of his period in the inferior categories of the FC Barcelona. "Had a team very, very good. Many say that we were the best team of the history of the centre of training of the Barça. I do not know if this has changed, but till lately were the only team that had won the Championship Sub-15 when only we had 14, by in front of the Espanyol Or15, besides", commented.

In this team, the three cracks of the generation of the 1987 led to the team forming his vertebral column: Gerard Hammered was the reference of the defensive block, Cesc Fàbregas was the engine of the team from the centre of the field and Leo Messi was the attendant to be lethal up, attaining figures like cadet in which it remained near of the 40 goals annotated.

"Had a team very, very good"

With the one who more hallucinated Cesc Fàbregas was with Leo Messi. "It was especially very, very small", said the Catalan on the Argentinian, adding that "it received a lot of hits because it still did not have the strength to resist the faults. We could see that had ease in the one against one, but from here to imagine in who would convert ...", it commented the midfield player of the ACE Monaco.

Cesc Fàbregas explained an anecdote with Leo Messi and Tito Vilanova, that then trained them. "Leo Messi played by the left, no of forward. The change gave in a final of Glass Catalonia in front of the Espanyol. Our trainer, Tito Vilanova, came to see us to Leo and to me the day before the party and said us that it would range it to him of leading centre and to me as '10', higher of the usual. It was the first time for the two", remembered.

On that party against the Espanyol, Cesc Fàbregas has a memory épico. "Leo Messi had fracturado the cheekbone five days before. It had to play with a mask. The same that Puyol had used a month before with the first team because only we had one. Mask for all the club! During the final, Messi could go out of the field to the twenty minutes: already we went winning 3-0, had marked a hat-trick... It was the first time that said that there was a phenomenon there", rememoró.

His ways separated

Cesc Fàbregas and Gerard Hammered abandoned the inferior categories of the FC Barcelona to test luck in the English football, whereas Leo Messi remained in the FC Barcelona to triumph. Gerard Hammered went back to the Camp Nou after his go through the Manchester United and turned into a reference, whereas Cesc took some years more before going back. However, the Catalan midfield player did not last so much in the team culé because of the competition of players like Xavi Hernández or Andrés Iniesta.