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 Name: Michael Laudrup
Nationality: Danish
Position: Forward
Birth Date: 15/06/1964
Birth Place:
Frederiksberg, Denmark.
Shirt number for Barça: 9
Seasons in Barça: 5
Transferred to Barça from: Juventus
Transferred
from Barça to: Real Madrid.
Goals in La Liga: 40
Voted as the best foreign player in the last 25 years to ever play
in La Liga. He arrived from Juventus to Barcelona for the 1989-1990 season. Known for his fantastic technique and unselfishness,
he was considered the play maker in Cruyff's" Dream Team", which was during Cruyff's second year as the coach of Barcelona.
Although
his first year did not lead to any silverware, the next four years was a thing of dynasties. Partnering Stoitchkov lead to
Barça winning four championships in a row and those years are still remembered as the best years of the club. He was multidimensional
by being able to play as an attacking midfielder and a forward.
However, the club brought Romario from PSV in Michael's fifth - and what would be his final year - and that lead to
Michael being dropped as a starter due in large to the La Liga regulation of a maximum of three foreign players allowed in
a game. Since there were four foreign stars in the club - Michael, Romario, Stoichkov and Koeman - Cruyff introduced a rotation
system for his foreigners which did not suit to Laudrup's liking.
He always wanted to be a starter and the last straw
came at the 1994 European Cup Championship finals against AC Milan. Barcelona lost that game by a score of 4-0 and Michael
did not get to play in that game. That is when he decided it was time to leave Barcelona but no one could have expected him
to sign and play with Barcelona's arch rivals, Real Madrid. He would spend a total of two years at Real Madrid and then two
more years in Japan playing for Vissel Kobe and ended his club playing career at Ajax Amsterdam and bowed out totally from
football after representing Denmark in the 1998 World Cup following Denmark's defeat on the hands of Brazil.
He coached
the Danish club Brondby IF, a club he played for when he was younger. His team faced Barcelona in the third round of the 2003
- 2004 Uefa Cup where they would lose 3-1 on aggregate. He recently resigned as coach of Getafe.
His crowning achievements
at FC Barcelona are: 1 European Cup; 4 La Liga crowns titles, 1 Copa Del Rey title; and 2 Spanish Super Cups.
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