Pep Guardiola - Unforgettable Legacy
On The Guardian, writer Jonathan Wilson used a very expensive image to describe the day Pep left Etihad: "He didn't just leave the trophies, he left an operating system".
10 years ago, Guardiola came to England carrying skeptical looks about an artistic football philosophy that was said to be difficult to survive in the land of steel lungs and fiery collisions. But now, Pep will walk away after the Premier League has been completely changed DNA by him.
Reflecting on Pep, foreign newspapers no longer indulge in counting the number of titles. Pep's good thing is that he has turned a tournament that was originally devoted to physical fitness into a tactical chessboard, where all other colleagues are forced to evolve if they do not want to be eliminated. The definition of "inverted fullback" or "foot-playing goalkeeper" has now become terminology in the curriculum for every youth training academy.
People close to Pep shared that after each match, Pep often locks himself in his office at the Etihad, quietly watching the screen analyze the match. He is lonely in his own tactical world, a sage who self-tortures with thoughts that are ahead of his time... Now, when he has solved the most difficult problem of his life, he returns space to those who remain.
Dani Carvajal - The keeper of the "spirit of Madrid
In Madrid, a farewell with tremendous spiritual weight also just took place. Carvajal officially closed his white journey from 2013. In a poetic essay in Marca newspaper, people called him "The Muscle and Soul" of Real Madrid.
Amidst the galaxy brightly lit by names from Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Luka Modric, Toni Kroos to Jude Bellingham, Kylian Mbappe, Carvajal does not need to dominate to be noticed. He is the one who laid the first brick for the era of modern Real Madrid's dominance - both literally and figuratively. People look back at the historical photo of 2004, when Carvajal was just a 12-year-old blond boy, honored to join legend Alfredo Di Stéfano in starting construction of the Valdebebas training center.
More than 2 decades from the boy to the captain raising the Champions League trophy, Carvajal is the embodiment of the original Madridismo (Madrid Spirit): No flashiness, no demands, only dedication and iron fighting spirit. His farewell is the closing of the last generation of links between the old traditional values - where people play football for the colors of the flag - and the era of global commercialization of Los Blancos.
Mohamed Salah - Symbol of erasing prejudice
If Pep changes tactics, Carvajal preserves identity, then Salah at Liverpool has done something beyond the boundaries of a 22-man game: Soothing social conflicts.
When the "Egyptian King" confirmed his departure from Anfield after 9 years of attachment, writer James Pearce of The Athletic did not write about the goals in the familiar "left turn signal then curling into the far corner" style. He recalled a Stanford University study: Since Salah joined Liverpool, the number of crimes due to religious hatred in the Merseyside area has decreased by 16%.
That is a valuable detail that no football title can convert. Every goal of Salah, every time he knelt down to celebrate according to the sujud ritual on Anfield grass, is a time he brought cultural distances closer together. Liverpool people once sang in the stands: "If he scores a few more goals, I will also become Muslim". That is how football saves social prejudices.
Salah returned to England in doubt after a period of failure at Chelsea (2014-2016) but reversed everything to leave as a king without a throne, who used kindness and goals to warm a port city with many wounds.
World football will still operate after the summer of 2026, but many details will be lost somewhere, leaving a feeling of disappointment. That is the law of time flow, but, as the French newspaper L'Équipe commented in a special issue: "Don't be sad because they have left, be proud that we have lived in their era".
Farewells this summer are special in that they do not carry the colors of betrayal, money scandals or bitter endings. They are a natural, complete and proud closing of people who have dedicated themselves to turning their clubs into a home, and turning football into a work of art for humanity.
Don't judge Pep with trophies, look at how central defenders now play football like defensive midfielders, and how goalkeepers refuse long balls. He's not just leading a club, he's reshaping the thinking of a whole football culture" - Jamie Carragher (Sky Sports)
There are players born to glorify newspapers, and there are people like Dani - born to be the backbone for that brilliance. He is a flesh and blood bridge between Di Stéfano's glorious past and Real Madrid's current renaissance. A bodyguard never demands rewards, because fighting is already his reward" - Marca newspaper (Spain)
When Mo Salah scored, Anfield exploded. But when he knelt down to pray, the world around this city suddenly became gentler. Salah did something that politicians had to spend decades doing: using running steps and kindness to break the religious prejudice wall in England" - James Pearce (The Athletic)
