The day the league title race began, Wojciech Szczesny was sitting on the beach in Marbella, lighting up a cigarette, enjoying his retirement; the day it ended nine months on, he was on the pitch at the RCDE Stadium, 1,000km north, celebrating alongside the friends old and new with whom he had just become a champion again. At 35, the Polish goalkeeper had been convinced to come out of retirement for one last job, and what a job it was, a season he hadn’t even expected to play ending with a league and cup double after a 2-0 win at local rivals Espanyol.
He was joined at Barcelona by a stellar cast, a whole new generation that includes a kid 17 years and three months his junior – a teenager at the other end of a career that might yet be one of the best there has ever been.
