Claudio Bravo did not want to be a goalkeeper and Pep Guardiola does not want him to be a goalkeeper either. Not “just” a goalkeeper, anyway. The Chile captain recalled how on the streets of Viluco, a village of 2,000 people surrounded by vineyards south of Santiago, the older kids would tell him to get in goal. By the time he made it to the capital, he was told to get out of it again: he had to save, sure, but he had to play too. And so he played: at Colo-Colo, Real Sociedad and then Barcelona. Now he will do the same at Manchester City having officially joined the club on Thursday.
“Like any kid I originally wanted to be up front,” Bravo said but he was forced between the posts and it was from there that he joined Colo-Colo aged 11, travelling daily in his dad’s lorry, fruit filling the back. He was only short, skinny too, but for three years he progressed until one day he came for a cross, missed it and conceded a goal. One of the club’s directors blew his top, decided he was useless, too small to be a goalkeeper, just not good enough either, and insisted they get rid of him.
“I thought: ‘I’m only 14,’” Bravo told El Periódico. Hurt, he went home to Viluco and stayed there. His mind was made up: it was over. But back in Santiago his coach defended him. “If he goes, so do I,” Julio Rodríguez insisted.
Rodríguez saw something in Bravo, persuaded him to return and persuaded Colo-Colo to let him. He saw something in football too. He had been on a coaching course at Ajax, where he met Frans Hoek, who had joined the club under Johan Cruyff. Hoek later worked at Barcelona and Manchester United with Louis van Gaal and embraced Cruyff’s ideal: “In my teams, the goalkeeper is the first attacker.” So did Rodríguez. Bravo had to play, to pass the ball out, not just hoof it clear; it became an obsession, repeated constantly.
Bravo shot up: from that mistake at 14 to his first-team debut at 16, he grew 14cm. At 19, an injury gave him the chance to become first choice and he didn’t let it go; it was a story that would be repeated, very much his way. One day, a coach at the Basque club Real Sociedad was asked to go and watch him. His name was Xabier Mancisidor – taken there by Manuel Pellegrini, he is now the goalkeeping coach at City – and his recommendation led to Bravo being signed in 2006.
It had not always been easy – he did not play a single league game in his second season, despite the team having been relegated to the second division – but by the time Bravo joined Barcelona eight years later, he had become la Real’s captain and Chile’s too.
There is no doubting his personality, the pride; there is a serious determination about him, a confident self-awareness and a certain toughness, a sense of duty. He challenged a comedian for mocking members of the Chile team and he spoke out when he won La Liga’s best goalkeeper award in 2015 and the presentation was proceeded by a “funny” video of goalkeeping errors that he did not find funny. “Lamentable,” he called it.
There were no mistakes from him in it – there were none to choose from – but he said: “I hope to be here next year and I hope the video is different then.”
The men behind his signing at the Camp Nou were the assistant coach Juan Carlos Unzué and Andoni Zubizarreta, the sporting director. Both had been goalkeepers there under Cruyff, team-mates of Guardiola. “He has character, a good relationship with the defence, good one on one, and excellent with his feet. And for me that is a key element,” Zubizarreta said. Excellent with his feet? Well, he had scored a free-kick for Real Sociedad, against Numancia. “I know I am going to have to participate not just as a goalkeeper but also as a centre-back,” Bravo said.
At the Etihad he will have to do the same; that is a key part of why they have turned to him. For many managers that matters: when he was with England, Fabio Capello had spoken to Joe Hart about improving with his feet. For Guardiola, more Cruyffist than Cruyff, it is absolutely non-negotiable. Last season, Bravo completed 84% of his passes; Hart completed 53%. Hart gave possession to the opposition 352 times, Bravo 142. He became a vital part of Barcelona’s mechanism, even though the truth is that, at 31, he had been signed as an experienced, competitive and reliable back-up goalkeeper for Marc-André ter Stegen, nine years younger.
Bravo did not see it like that of course, so he competed, dealing perfectly with the pressure, an open determination about him. “I have come to play everything,” he said, hinting at those who doubted him as he added: “I know what I am capable of and what I am worth.” So, in theory, did Barcelona, but it turned out that he was better than even they anticipated. An injury to Ter Stegen just before the season started left Bravo as a starter, replacing a man who he also did not get on with. It took until the ninth game for anyone to score against him.
So Bravo became first choice in the league, Ter Stegen in the Champions League and the Copa del Rey; the Camp Nou goal would be shared. It was not an entirely comfortable situation for either and unsustainable in the long term, Ter Stegen insisting late last season he did not want to be “the goalkeeper of the future” and Bravo’s departure underlining he did not want to sit on the bench. The problem was they were both too good to be left out and neither of them ever gave the manager an “excuse” to choose a clear No1.
Now, Luis Enrique has it: two years on, the decision has been made, assisted by City. It is Ter Stegen’s extraordinary ability and age that makes this a deal most supporters, both clubs and both players are satisfied with, in which everyone’s a winner except Hart.
The truth is the majority of Barcelona fans consider the German a better, more exciting goalkeeper, more likely to pull off a miracle, but there is recognition and gratitude for Bravo too. How could there not be? In two years since he joined, he has won two league titles in a row and also captained Chile to consecutive Copa América titles.
His contribution has been hugely significant, bringing sobriety and stability; bringing the ball out too. He was exactly what Barcelona were looking for and exactly what Guardiola is looking for now: personality, presence, passing, and decisive when it matters.
In theory, he came to Barcelona as a substitute but he leaves as a sought-after man, having played 75 games and carrying eight medals. Rarely has a goalkeeper been more reliable. Ter Stegen may have had more memorable moments but as Salvador Sadurní, Barcelona’s goalkeeper from 1961 to 1976, aptly puts it: “If Bravo has made any mistakes, I can’t remember them.”
The kid from Viluco turned out to be pretty good in goal; it turned out he can play a bit, too.
Guardian
