Crosas: "The Masia marks your life"

Former Barcelona player Marc Crosas gave an interview to Catalan sports paper El Mundo Deportivo.





If I see your goalkeeper Boruc on the front page of all local tabloids, I don't think you can complain about the Spanish press.
Over here, the tabloid press chases you. But until now they are leaving me alone. But in general there's more respect for your private life here. The interest of the sports press is not as big as in Spain. It's more focused on the day of the match.

It's impressive to hear the chants.
That's true. When you enter the stadium and the fans are singing "You'll never walk alone", you get goosebumps. It's a proud nation. They wear a kilt during important games and even when it's freezing cold they keep on singing wearing short-sleeved shirts, or even no shirt at all. They don't stop encouraging the team, the atmosphere is phenomenal. It's mythical how they start with "Larsson is the king". They keep on adoring him here. That's also why they treat me that well. I come from Barcelona, they tell me that Celtic and Barça are connected.

They also sing for you?
Yes, but it's not really a big deal. They sing "Crosas is better than Cesc" but they already had the refrain before my debut so it's not that my performances impressed them. But it's very nice.

How did you adapt to live in Glasgow?
With ups and downs. Footballwise, they are treating me very well because they believed in me from the first day. The bad thing is that you cannot have a siesta here because at five o'clock it's already dark and one hour later everything is closed. A group of Spanish exchange students, that I got to know by accident in September, has saved my life.

Tell me that story...
I was at a pub watching a Barça game and I heard them talking Spanish. They also heard me talking by mobile phone and they presented themselves. At the start, they didn't recognize me until a Barça fan joined in. It's a group of thirty students and I've integrated. We organize dinners with tortillas and the food our mothers send us. One day we went to Loch Ness. But we didn't see the monster.

What do you always have in your fridge?
Frozen flesh that my mother Maria bought in the butcher shop of my hometown Bescanó, althought I was born in Sant Feliu de Guíxols, dry sausages, ham and cheese, all from Catalonia. My specialty is spaghetti carbonara but I prepare it that often that they start to detest it. I miss the meals prepared by my mother or my grandmother. And those of the Barcelona youth academy. How delicious was the food in Barça's Masia! I was there for five years. I'll never forget the plates prepared by Belén and Fernando, the chefs. The Masia marks your life.

And above all that you have to work these holidays...
Yes, the league doesn't stop here. We played last weekend and next weekend again. The only time I wasn't with my family these days was when we travelled to Australia with Barcelona's Juvenil B youth team. We celebrated the New Year at a temperature of 40 degrees. We all got sick when we returned. Maybe I can be at home on the day of Epiphany, 6 January, that would be great. I have two little brothers, Guillem and Josep, and I think that I maybe even could celebrate my birthday at home the 9th of January.

At least you have a direct flight Girona-Glasgow evey day.
And it's a low cost company. I miss everything of Girona, the beaches, the see, the city. The sun! I just don't see any sunshine here...


Marc Crosas joined Celtic Glasgow in 2008. Since Barcelona can buy Crosas back in the summer of 2010 for two million euro (read more here), this blog will follow the performances of the midfielder over the next two years.

Read more:
Barcelona could make Crosas return in 2010
Sylvinho can negotiate with Celtic
International: Four players called up for Catalonia