TIKI-TAKA: THE ORIGIN

The "tiki-taka" is back in fashion, if it ever ceased to be in recent years. Pep Guardiola's return to the bench, in particular to Bayern, has made a return to speak with strength about this concept and even some German media have already renamed "Tikki-Takken". Now, where this "tiki-taka" comes from?

Well, the first thing to say is that the name "original" is "tiqui-taca" and is, although not enough, a derogatory term to refer to this style of play where the players touch and touch the ball, according to some, so boring.

In Spain, many people think that the origin is in the journalist who died a while, Andrés Montes. Montes became very popular, first as a commentator of NBA games for Canal+. A different style of storytelling and clever use of certain phrases as well as giving nicknames to the players made him very famous. Later he commented football in "La Sexta", starting at the World Cup in Germany. The truth is that Montes made popular the term "tiqui-taca" (or tiki-taka), but the origin is much older.

Other people attribute this word to the coach Javier Clemente. Clemente, like others, also referred (or is referring actually), so derogatory to this type of game. From Clemente are sentences like "The best attack is a good defense." No comments.

The truth is that the first I heard this word is Jose Mari Maguregui (the "Magu"), former player and former coach in many teams. As a player he was basically at Ath. Bilbao, although he was in Sevilla, Espanyol and Huelva. As a coach at Racing Santander, Espanyol, Celta, At. Madrid and Almeria, among others, and in some of them, 2 or 3 times.

From the time at Espanyol, (1980-1983), is the "tiki-taka". Maguregui did a television interview where talking about different ways to play the game referred “possession” in this derogatory manner. Maguregui, like many at the time, defended a very direct game based on physical strength of the players, not the technical qualities. In the cAt Barça, there were players like Schuster, Landáburu, "Tente" Sanchez, Rubio or Estella, and Maradona would come a few years later. Although not as much as it is now, the Barça’s style has always been a style of touch and not about “power” (see the players mentioned) and Maguregui referred to them in this way, in the sense that "touch" and "touch" was boring. Hence the "tiki-taka": touching-touching.

The truth is, it was originally written "tiqui-taca" and no one else remembered it until Montes, as we have said before made it again popular from 2006. This also coincides with the "Champions" won by Barça in Paris against Arsenal. They were Xavi and Iniesta and Messi missed it because an injury. All this and, above all, from the EURO 2008, made the term popular worldwide. As "tiqui" was pretty hard to pronounce for those who do not have the sound "qu" appeared "tiki" like spelling pronunciation. The rest of the story is well known by everybody.

As the saying goes, "to Caesar what is Caesar's" and "to Magu what is Magu’s".

Jordi Pascual

You can follow me on Twitter: @JordiPascualP