With 2010 gone, writer Sid Lowe, who was recently awarded Best Football Journalist by football site Soccerlens for his “outstanding work in covering Spanish football in 2010“, sat down to look back at Spanish football from 2000 to 2010 and compile his team of the decade for Sports Illustrated. He started off the series with Real Madrid. This time around, he casts his eyes on the Catalan club. Of the 11 players in Lowe’s list, six are key players in the current side. Coach Guardiola also finds a place with only two and a half years as manager. Here is his pick of the perfect Barca 11. The original article can be read here.

Here’s one man’s choice for Barcelona’s team of the decade 2000 to 2010:

Goalkeeper: Víctor Valdés

Víctor Valdés has won three Zamora awards since his debut for Barcelona in November 2002, as many as any goalkeeper since the turn of the century. Trouble is, the response to that particular fact is as inevitable as it is easy: the Zamora, handed to the man who has conceded the fewest goals per game, actually rewards the best defense, not the best goalkeeper — and any old idiot can play in goal for Barcelona. But that’s only partly true. And if anything, what you could call the Brazilian Goalkeeper Syndrome might actually have counted against him, minimizing his importance. After all, everyone wants their goalkeeper to be a savior, and you can only save those that need saving. Valdés, Zamora in 2004-05, has long-since left the doubts behind (he has particularly improved with the ball at his feet, where he was occasionally disastrous). And although Barcelona’s dominance of the ball limits the number of chances the opposition get — in their last six games before the Catalan derby, for example, they had conceded just nine goal-scoring opportunities — it is not all about the defense. Strong, focused, positionally clever, and quick, Valdés plays his part too with key saves at key moments. Last season he unquestionably deserved the Zamora. His late call-up to the Spain squad for the World Cup was an act of justice, not charity.

Right-back: Juliano Belletti

Let’s face it, Dani Alves is the best right back to play for Barcelona over the last 10 years — and probably over the last 20. But he only joined Barcelona two years ago and although he was a vital part of a unique team that won six trophies in a run, he did not actually play in the Champions League final against Manchester United in Rome. So, sneaking in ahead of him (probably unfairly) is Juliano Belletti. Belletti was at Barcelona from 2004 to 2007 and won two league titles and the European Cup. That’s the same as Alves (who adds a Copa del Rey and World Club Cup), only with one big difference: Belletti might have only scored once for Barça but it was the winning goal in the European Cup final. Frank Rijkaard’s fears over his perceived defensive frailties were misplaced — and ultimately cost Barcelona. His replacement by, first, Oleguer and, then, Zambrotta was not the main factor in Barcelona’s decline but it was a factor: without Belletti Barcelona had little width, becoming more predictable and more exposed, not less.

Centre-back: Carles Puyol

Barcelona’s very own Captain Caveman, playing with his hair in his eyes and his heart on his sleeve. Suffered an important fall in form during 2007 and 2008 — based, above all, on the coming together of a tactical weakness and a physical dip, as well as the fact that he was suddenly exposed and felt a responsibility to cover for others. Puyol tended to come screeching out of defense to win tackles and headers that he couldn’t actually get to. The good news is that Pep Guardiola has helped eradicate those tactical mistakes. Also, fit again, deeply serious about his preparation, Puyol has the physical condition to get away with it once again. In fact, he has got even better. Seemed to be on his way out a year or so ago, but has been undisputed since. Almost comically intense, he never, ever lets his guard slip. Just ask teammate Gerard Piqué — who spends all game, every game getting shouted at. Or Edmílson. During one game Puyol started screaming at Edmílson over a minor mistake … until Valdés intervened to calm him down and remind him that Barcelona were winning 3-0. The season’s revelation in 2001 according to football magazine Don Balón, he has racked up over 350 league games, four league titles, two European Cups, a European Championship and a World Cup.

Centre-back: Gerard Piqué

When Piqué was a kid, the then Barcelona coach Louis Van Gaal came around to his grandfather’s house for dinner. The proud grandfather, also a director at the club, introduced little Gerard: a kid who was going to go on an play for his club. Van Gaal walked up to him … and pushed him over. Towering over Gerard, he barked: “you’re too weak to be a Barcelona defender.” Who knows, had it not been for the spell at Manchester United, he might have been right. But now, Piqué is not just strong enough to play for Barcelona but is on course to be a future captain and a massive idol, possibly even the best central defender in Europe. Wonderful with the ball at his feet, the first link in every Barcelona move — the man that allows Barcelona to invite pressure and still escape it. The 2009 Copa del Rey final was the classic example, Piqué receiving from Valdés on his own byline to draw Athletic Bilbao in. Then there’s the sixth goal against Real Madrid at the Bernabéu — in which Piqué started and brilliantly finished a 60-yard move. In just two years at Barcelona, he has won everything there is to win, including a World Cup. (And if two years does not seem enough to get in this side — and for other positions it hasn’t been — ask yourself this: who else is there? Márquez? Maybe. De Boer? Nah.)

Left-back: Giovanni Van Bronckhorst

Gio wasn’t even a left back when he joined Barcelona but he did a pretty good impression of one. Quick, tidy and not at all bad defensively, he gave Barcelona balance and a certain attacking presence between 2003 and 2007. Didn’t get that many goals but his 94th-minute winner against Betis allowed Barcelona to take a giant step toward the 2004-2005 title. That was one of two league titles that Gio won with the club. And he also won the European Cup. Arrived, as a midfielder, on loan from Arsenal and later joined Barcelona on a permanent deal for €2 million ($2.6 million). A bargain.

Midfielder: Xavi Hernández

In the words of Louis Van Gaal and Alex Ferguson, Xavi gave the ball away once … sometime back in 1996. The ultimate passer, the man who is not just a far better player than most footballers but makes his teammates far better players too. A brilliant footballer who every time he gets the ball has only one thing on his mind: to give it away again. In the last year, a player has completed one hundred passes or more on 25 occasions. On 13 of those that player was Xavi. Against Levante on Sunday, he completed more passes (156!) than the entire Levante team put together. The ideologue behind the most successful Barcelona team in history — and the most successful Spain team, too. In the last two years alone, he has won the European Championships, the World Cup, the league, the Copa del Rey, and the European Cup. More Barcelona appearances than anyone else in history, having made his debut in October 1998. The best central midfielder Spanish football has ever produced.

Midfielder: Andres Iniesta

“Andres doesn’t dye his hair, he doesn’t wear earrings and he hasn’t got any tattoos”, said Pep Guardiola. “Andres has everything — except media backing,” said Xavi. For a few years, the complaint was that his normal-ness meant that people did not give him enough credit; now, it has become another selling point. Not only is he brilliant — and he is sometimes startling, unexpectedly brilliant — but everyone loves him even more precisely because he appears so normal. So thoroughly likable, so utterly decent. Skinny, pale, a little balding, yet a total genius with unbelievably fast feet. “Walking” through a training drill at the Mini Estadi the other day, he moved the ball from one foot to the other so fast that the watching crowd was left open mouthed; one training partner spluttered a simple: “hostia.” Bloody heck! And that said it all. Beyond the tribal loyalties, if the Spanish could have chosen a man to score the winning goal in the World Cup final, they would have chosen him. Iniesta, on the other hand, simply waited for the ball to drop and chose his spot.

Midfielder: Deco

Deco joined Barcelona as the star man from Jose Mourinho’s European Cup-winning Porto side in 2004. But rather than take the fantasy role behind the strikers, he played in a more withdrawn, deeper position. From there he, even more than Xavi, dictated the game for three years. Had an unusual way of moving the ball — always controlled it with his studs rather than his instep, putting his foot on the ball, rolling it with the underside of his boot. And seemed to almost hop rather than run past opponents. He had great vision and an extraordinary tactical awareness. When he played well, Barcelona played well. And his decline, like that of Ronaldinho, was in part Barcelona’s decline too. Sadly, his departure was necessary for the team’s rebirth. But a few years earlier his arrival had been too. Won two league titles and the European Cup between 2004 and 2008, and was voted Uefa’s best midfielder in 2006.

Forward: Ronaldinho

Ronaldinho’s rapid decline, the fact that he became a huge problem for Barcelona (and “huge” was often the word), doesn’t change the bottom line: for three or four years he was absolutely incredible, doing things you had simply never seen before — the outrageous skill, the dribbles, the assists, the overhead kicks, and the rockets, flying in off the bar. The passes with his back, for goodness sake. Had he carried on like that and had he emulated his Barcelona form at a World Cup, we might have been talking about one of the best players of all time. But he didn’t. He did, though, change Barcelona’s history — revitalizing them, kick-starting them after three years of crisis. (My) Player of the Year twice, in 2004 and 2006 (only Messi has done the same in the decade), and FIFA World Player twice in a row, Ronaldinho was unlike anything before or since. Won two league titles and the European Cup, scoring almost a goal every other game. Most of them brilliant. Even got a standing ovation from Real Madrid’s fans after one stunning display at the Santiago Bernabéu. In 2003, Barcelona’s incoming president Joan Laporta tried to sign David Beckham and failed. So he signed Ronaldinho instead. Has to be the greatest runners-up prize ever.

Forward: Samuel Eto’o

The striker with a big mouth and an even bigger heart. Plus a very short fuse. Driven, committed, almost pathological in his desire to win, Eto’o was absolutely voracious and scored a ridiculous amount of goals with unflinching consistency. In fact, over the last decade, no one has scored more in La Liga than him. More importantly, he always got the goals that mattered, the opening goals and the winning goals — not just the ones that came at the end of a thrashing of some bunch of donkeys. Left Barcelona having won the treble … and immediately won another one with Inter. Scored over 150 league goals and even when he was not able to have an impact he had one: missed out of much of 2006-07 and 2007-08 with injury but still got 11 in 19 and 16 in 18 respectively. The fact that those were the years that Barcelona went without success are no coincidence, either. Won three league titles, the Copa del Rey, and two European Cups. Scored the key opening goal in both of Barcelona’s European Cup finals. It wasn’t just about the goals, either — it was also about the pressure and intensity he applied. No one wanted it more than Eto’o. One of the things that was often overlooked about his very public, very damaging dispute with Ronaldinho is that Eto’o was right.

Forward: Leo Messi

Easy choice, hard to explain. How do you find the words to do justice to Lionel Messi? Where do you get a superlative that hasn’t been used before? (Not least on these very pages.) The man whose statistics are barely plausible, who can do it all — and ‘all’ really is the word. Un. Be. Lievable.

Coach: Pep Guardiola

Rijkaard shouldn’t be forgotten but there’s only one candidate — Guardiola.

Do you agree with Lowe’s choices? Who would you replace? Tell us your best Barca team of the decade in the comments.