Story By: Juan Mayes, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Golder’s News And Sport
This former Barcelona star has revealed the club promised “everyone who had been crowned a European champion” a lifelong salary after they beat Manchester United in the Champions League final in 2009.
Argentine striker Juan Carlos Heredia, 67, revealed he still collects his paycheck from the club as they kept their promise.
He was transferred to Barcelona in his early twenties where he shared the pitch with Dutch legend Johan Cruyff who Heredia said he kept in touch “until his final days”.
Heredia spoke to sports magazine “The Tactical Room” where he praised Cruyff saying he was “very talented” and “nobody could manage to kick him, and that is considering they used to launch some bad kicks at him!
“He would just jump and continue to go after the ball.”
Heredia also revealed a strange promise former Barcelona president Joan Laporta made.
Heredia revealed, back in 2009 “when Barca won the Champions League final in Rome against Manchester United with a header from Messi the club’s president declared that everyone who had been crowned a European champion with Barcelona would receive a life-long salary.”
Though he does not specify the amount, Heredia assures Laporta“kept his promise”.
Heredia was at Barcelona from 1974 to 1979 during which time he made a long-lasting friendship with Cruyff.
He won the Copa del Rey in 1978 and later went on to win the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup in 1979, making him eligible for the lifetime paycheck.
The UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup was a European competition whose participants were the winner of their national cups or runner-up if a team won both league and cup.
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