Óscar García: From Cruyff’s Barcelona to a new challenge in Polish football

Óscar García grew up inside one of the most influential football environments of the modern era. At FC Barcelona, he shared a dressing room with Pep Guardiola, Ronaldo Nazário, Romário, Hristo Stoichkov, Ronald Koeman and Michael Laudrup, while learning under Johan Cruyff. His coaching career has since taken him across Europe and beyond, with stops in Spain, Israel, England, Austria, France, Greece, Belgium, Mexico and the Netherlands. After a recent spell at Ajax, García has now taken on a new challenge with Pogoń Szczecin in Poland’s Ekstraklasa. In an exclusive interview with Daniel Sobis, the Spanish coach reflects on Barcelona's golden era, explains why Lionel Messi stands above everyone else, discusses the pressure surrounding Lamine Yamal and reveals his vision for the future of the Polish club.

– When you play with so many great players, it is difficult to choose one because all of them impress you in different ways. In my first season alone, we had players like Koeman, Laudrup and Stoichkov. They were exceptional footballers. Later, after the Bosman ruling, even more foreign players arrived. But if I had to choose one player, I would probably say Ronaldo. He was very young, but he could do practically everything. He could dribble, create, score goals, and physically he was incredible. He was a complete player.

– There is one player who, for me, is above everyone: Leo Messi. He scored goals, provided assists, could dribble, could even defend. He could play in midfield, he could play as a forward, he could operate in different positions. As a complete footballer, he is the best player I have ever seen.

– He was ahead of his time. He would explain things to you, and later you would see on the pitch that what he had told you was exactly right. Even in training, you could see how exceptional he was. He would sometimes take part in exercises with us and he was often the best. He also had a very strong personality. When he said something, he said it with such conviction that even if you had doubts at first, he could convince you. Most importantly, he taught us to think. To understand what was happening during a game, to identify the problem and find the solution. Many times before a match, he already knew what was going to happen. He knew what problems we were likely to face and how we could solve them. From a football perspective, you learned an incredible amount from him.

– When someone gives you so much information and so much football knowledge, you feel that you cannot keep it only for yourself. You want to pass it on to other people and other players, to help them develop and reach their maximum potential. Of course, I cannot compare myself with Johan. He was a genius.

– No, you cannot predict something like that. But you could see that he was very interested in understanding football. He wanted to know why we were doing a certain exercise, why things happened in a particular way and what the purpose was behind them. Still, nobody can look at a player and say: “This person is going to become the best coach in the world.” With players, it can sometimes be different because individual ability is more visible. You can see someone like Messi and immediately recognize extraordinary talent. But being a great player does not mean you will automatically become a great coach. What Pep has achieved is extraordinary.

– For me, it is very difficult to compare them. Leo Messi was at the very top for many years. He won so many titles and so many individual awards. Lamine is on his way to doing great things, but he is still at a very different stage of his career. I am not sure all these comparisons are good for him. Today’s world creates constant comparisons, constant news and constant expectations. But Lamine is a very intelligent young man. He has his feet on the ground, he knows where he wants to go and he knows what he has to do. Hopefully he can reach what Messi achieved, because that would mean he becomes one of the best players in the world.

– I felt very good at Red Bull Salzburg. We had a very good group of players. Apart from maybe three or four, almost all of them were young players who were still developing. They had great potential, but they had not yet reached their best level. I really enjoyed those two years. Every place I have worked has given me something. There have been good experiences and some less good ones. But I consider myself a much better coach today than I was at that time.

– It helped me understand many different mentalities and cultures. Working with so many nationalities gives you a much broader understanding of people, where they come from and what they are used to. That helps enormously when you work abroad. I am also fortunate to speak several languages, and that always helps. At the beginning of my career, I mainly had the Barcelona philosophy. By going abroad, I learned other ways of playing and thinking about football, especially when it comes to playing without the ball. Going abroad was very important for me. I wanted to evolve as a coach, become better over time and gain more experience. Looking back, I am very happy with the path I have taken.

– When I arrived, the idea was for me to help the second team and develop the players. The club was having some difficulties getting players from the second team ready to compete at first-team level, and Jong Ajax were at the bottom of the division. After three or four months, the club was very happy with the results and with the development of the players. Then the first team started having difficulties with results, and Jordi Cruyff asked me to help the first team until the end of the season. The club already had a coach planned for the following season. In the end, both the club and I felt it was better to move in different directions. They were looking for a different coaching profile, and I decided it was time for another step.

– Maybe the question is: why not? I had already spoken with Pogoń about a year earlier. At that time, neither the club nor I decided to take the final step. This time, everything happened very quickly. The club contacted me again, and because we had already discussed almost everything a year earlier, we both felt that this was the right moment for me to come.

– Of course, I cannot know the league as well as someone who has worked here all their life, but you do your work and prepare. There are also people at the club who know the league very well and are helping me a lot. It is not an easy competition, but there are no easy leagues. If you look at the results, many games are decided by very small margins. That tells you that the competition is very competitive. For us, adaptation is very important. We need to adapt quickly, get to know the players quickly and start implementing our ideas.

– We will need some time because the team previously played in a different way. The squad is more or less similar to last season, but there are many fundamental things we want to do differently. That takes time. We will try to shorten that process as much as possible and minimize the mistakes that can happen at the beginning when you are making changes. I want a team that gives people joy. I want people to enjoy watching us and I want Pogoń supporters to feel proud of their team. Of course, neither I nor any other coach can promise to win every game. But the idea is to go into every match, against every opponent, trying to win. We want to compete to win every game and keep getting better.

– He had a difficult period with some injury problems and games he could not play. We will try to manage him so he can perform throughout the season. We know his age and we know the physical issues he has had, but he is a very respected person here, especially in the city. We have had a very good relationship from the beginning. He is an international player with a lot of quality, so of course he can help us on the pitch.

– If we did not believe he could play and help us on the pitch, the club would not have renewed his contract. It has been some time since he was able to play regularly. Last season, there were periods when he could not play several games in a row or complete full matches. We are trying to get him back into the right physical condition, to be strong enough to make repeated efforts and play more minutes. We have to do it step by step.

– I do not think you can explain this success through only one person or one coach. In Spain, the work at youth level has been very good for many years. There are extremely well-prepared coaches working with young players. In Spanish clubs, you can find coaches at youth level who are capable of working at a very high level. You only have to look at how many Spanish coaches are working around the world, in the best leagues and the biggest competitions. And those coaches work with very talented players. Spain has a lot of talent. Look at Barcelona. Players like Lamine Yamal, Cubarsí or Gavi were already playing for the first team at 16 or 17.

In Spain, there is no fear of playing young players if they are ready. Of course, you should not play someone if they are not prepared, because then you can damage their development. But if they are ready, age does not matter. What matters is their performance on the pitch.

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