It must be tough being David Villa at times. Not just because of the hours spent every morning to get that tiny under-lip beard the Barça striker sports just so.
Whilst everyone causes such a frenzied fuss and kerfuffle about fellow products of La Masia like Messi, Iniesta and Piqué, the poor poppet is forced to show strangers photographs of his scamp-faced younger self alongside Carles Puyol to prove that he really is Camp Nou born and bred.
Well, thatâÂÂs not entirely true.
In the same way that Christopher Lambert had to pass off his terrible attempt at a Scottish accent in 'Highlander', the Asturian also comes from âÂÂlots of different placesâ having begun at Sporting and moved to Zaragoza and then Valencia.
To be fair, David Villa is as âÂÂBarcelonianâ as humility and modesty.
But youâÂÂd never know that judging by the way Villa has been adopted by the Barcelona press - in the âÂÂentire professional back-story rewrittenâ sense of the word. It was the Barça pure-blood who lead Spain to World Cup glory and Mundo Deportivo is back in business, this week, by praising Villa to the high heavens over his reception in Argentina where he has really âÂÂenergisedâ the locals with his Catalan greatness.
Villa is in the Falklands-fancying part of the world to take part in a friendly on Tuesday and either beat or equal RaúlâÂÂs goal-scoring record for Spain with a single strike.
Naturally, this being the polemic-loving nature of la Primera, which of the two potential outcomes you believe depends on whether you are an evil-doing Real Madrid follower or a decent, hard-working Barcelona supporter, according to Mundo Deportivo, anyway.
The former (a group Marca are part of) feel Villa is still one behind the former Madrid captain on 43 goals - that strike coming in FridayâÂÂs 4-0 win against Liechtenstein - because they have awarded the first effort in pre-World Cup friendly against Poland as an own-goal for the on-rushing defender, Dudka (judge for yourself here).
This group include the Spanish FA, a pro-Raúl, pro-Real Madrid organisation that has been âÂÂcontaminatedâ by the debate, claim Mundo Deportivo.
Groups that the paper would consider right-thinking souls who give Villa 44 goals include UEFA and this is causing no end of problems for stat-loving hacks and managed to set off an inter-FFT squabble during the World Cup.
Aside from VillaâÂÂs newly-discovered Barcelona roots, the other news from the Catalan capital was Joan âÂÂJoanâ Laporta defending himself from claims made in the Madrid papers that he and his board were less than frugal with their expense accounts during his seven years in charge of the Camp Nou club.
In reality, this is quite an important issue as the institution's money is the members' money and ideally should not be splurged on booze, trinkets and private jets by snout-guzzling fat cats - an accusation leveled at Laporta.
Joan comes into the debate already in a bit of a sticky situation having admitted what every culé knew - and a reason for his candidateâÂÂs election defeat - in that he was using the publicity generated by Barça to launch his own political career.
âÂÂIf I could have taken more advantage of [the club] I would have,â admitted Laporta in August.
In a TV interview over the weekend, the former Barcelona president responded to allegations that â¬400,000 had been spent on private jets in a year, â¬600,000 had been given to the Catalan FA and jewelry and watches worth â¬420,000 had been given to his players by blaming a conspiracy by the âÂÂSpanish media cavernâ - a familiar theme for the former King of Cataluyna.
Laporta argued that the allegations detailed in an audit ordered by Sandro Rosell - that was somehow leaked to the Madrid press - were designed to âÂÂdefame me...what canâÂÂt be deleted is everything Barcelona won in these seven years.âÂÂ
The Cataluyna-loving crazy defended his decision to spend cash on watches for already filthy rich and well-paid footballers by claiming that the victory rewards were part of a strategy to âÂÂmake like comfortable for the players.âÂÂ
Meanwhile, former VP Alfons Godall, pointed out that âÂÂthe president of Barcelona canâÂÂt travel in tourist class nor on a bus nor on a 10-journey pass on the metro.âÂÂ
Especially not when someone else is paying, eh Alfons?
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