“When you're criticised, what you want to do is shut up their mouths”

Barcelona's game flows, most of the time, through Pedri's feet. The Tenerife native is the metronome of a team that at the beginning of April is alive in all competitions and is the favourite to win at least one of the titles.

It is Pedri's best year as a 'Cule', even better than in his first year. The midfielder wanted to remember all those who criticised him for the physical problems he has suffered in recent years.

“I've lived through all the situations. At the beginning it was all praise, then came the criticism and now the praise has returned. I've experienced both sides of the coin. They said I was made of glass, that I got injured a lot. When you are criticised, what you always want to do is to give more of yourself and shut up those mouths that often criticised you,” he said in a preview of an interview in ‘3Cat’.

Despite his great year, Pedri knows he can progress further: “I'm only 22 years old and have room for improvement. The coach also tells me that in training. You can always lose fewer balls, you can always improve the number of goals, choose better when to accelerate or calm the game... you can improve everything”.

“The Ballon d'Or is one thing I see far away. I think they are players who, normally do a lot of figures, except this year Rodri won it. I prefer, for example, that Raphinha or Lamine win it, they deserve it as much as anyone else. They are the ones who make the most difference. As long as the team wins titles, I'm happy,” he argued.

“It's nice to be compared to Xavi and Iniesta, who are the ones I was crazy about when I was a kid, along with Sergio Busquets. But they are players who have marked an era, who won many titles and I still have a long way to go to be something of what they were,” said Pedri.