The only meeting between Cruyff & Messi

The two biggest references in the history of Barcelona -- Johan Cruyff and Lionel Messi -- hardly got the chance to know each other. They only coincided at an event one, FIFA's 2012 gala in Switzerland. Messi collected the Ballon d'Or and Cruyff awarded it. They didn't travel to the ceremony together because one went with the Barça expedition which was headed by then president Sandro Rosell and the other didn't want to get on that plane. At the end of the event, Cruyff and Messi shook hands and said goodbye. 

Leo lived close to Camp Nou until he left for Castelldefels and Johan was between his house in El Montanya and the one on Calle Margenat. All just a few kilometres away. Messi was playing at Camp Nou when Joan Laporta made Cruyff the Honorary President of the club. But never -- not before or after that image in Zurich in 2012 -- was there a meeting between the two. Not even by coincidence, as was the case with Carles Puyol who bumped into Johan in a lift at Pedralbes Centre. 

That in itself is an error by FC Barcelona and also by the Catalan media, because to get them together would have been the best way to sell the brand and listening to them would have been a sensational way to learn how two key characters in the history of Barça understand football and their relationship with the Blaugrana.