After losing the UEFA Conference League final to Enzo Fernández’s Chelsea, Real Betis ended their season in sixth place in La Liga. Now on vacation, defender Marc Bartra reflected on the team’s performance and shared a personal story involving Lionel Messi from their days together at Barcelona.
“He’s had bad moments on the pitch. I’ve seen him in the locker room cursing himself, pulling on his own jersey in frustration after missing a penalty,” Bartra said during an appearance on the show Viajando con Chester. “He kept repeating, ‘What have I done? What have I done?’”
Bartra continued, “But then he’d go out for the second half and be the best player on the field. That’s what made him the best—not just his technical ability, but his capacity to bounce back. It’s about how you deal with what happens to you, what solutions you bring. Not playing the victim, but taking responsibility.”
The Real Betis player also highlighted Messi as a role model for mental strength. “Mental health wasn’t something we talked about when I was starting out, and for me it’s the most important thing now. I always say, ‘Just give me health, and the rest will follow.’ That’s the mindset you see in players with real talent—like Leo Messi.”
Bartra’s unforgettable trauma in Dortmund
Bartra didn’t only wear the jerseys of Barcelona and Betis—he also played for Borussia Dortmund from mid-2016 to early 2018. One of the most traumatic moments of his career happened in Germany. On April 11, 2017, the Dortmund team bus was attacked with three explosives just 10 kilometers from Signal Iduna Park before a Champions League quarterfinal against AS Monaco.
“I started bleeding out. I couldn’t even move my arm—it was an unbelievable pain. A piece of shrapnel, like a bullet, shattered my bones and got stuck in the seat next to me,” he recalled. “I don’t think I’ve ever told this part: the teammate who usually sat there was injured and couldn’t travel that day. He was frustrated about missing the match, but it ended up being the luckiest moment of his life. If he had been there, the shrapnel probably would’ve hit him in the head.”
