BARCELONA: Rahul Dravid, the former Indian cricketer and the current India U-19 team coach visited Camp Nou, where Barcelona was playing against Atletico Madrid in a La Liga clash. Barcelona defeated Atletico Madrid by 2-0.
"It is one of the things I have always wanted to do, to come to Camp Nou, watch a football match and to be here, experience the atmosphere is absolutely electric. It is incredible, I mean to be able to watch people like (Lionel) Messi and (Luis) Suarez play live is fantastic for me and my family. So thanks to Barcelona FC for the hospitality, it's been excellent," fcbarcelona.com quoted Dravid as saying.
"We have great crowds and great atmosphere at the IPL and a lot of our Test matches as well, so cricket is the No.1 sport in India but football is catching up very quickly," he added.
Dravid is one of the few players in the international game to have scored 10,000 runs in both Tests and ODI format. He was seen expressing his views on Lionel Messi, the Barcelona's star striker as well.
"I think he is an absolute genius, it's incredible what he does and to watch him live and to see ... one thing with Messi is he's fantastic with the ball but it's incredible to see how good he's without the ball - how he's able to find spaces. I don't think there's a better player than him ever," Dravid said.
Dravid is currently coaching the India-A team and India U-19 team and he has been instrumental in grooming talents like Rishabh Pant, Prithvi Shaw.