With your feet on American soil but your head in Barcelona. Barça have started with an expedition of 32 players to face a tour of 15 days and four games in exchange for more than 12 million euros, essential for the Camp Nou box office. Lineups will be just as important as signing in and out considering there are currently only 13 players registered in the league.
The three announced signings are yet to have a record – Oriol Romeu, Iñigo Martínez and Ilkay Gündogan – and we’ll have to see what happens to the seven Barça B youngsters, as well as the players who will be in the starting XI: Kessié , Lenglet, Dest and Julian Araujo. After Umtiti’s departure was formalized, Nico isn’t in Xavi’s plans either and he stayed at Barcelona waiting for his loan deal – Betis or Valencia – or his transfer to Porto to be completed. Unlike last season, when Riqui Puig, Lenglet, Umtiti, Neto, Braithwaite, Mingueza and Rey Manaj did not travel, only Nico has been left off Xavi’s list
The manager has four games to try out: Juventus (July 22, 4:30am; San Francisco), Arsenal (July 26, 4:30am; Los Angeles), Real Madrid (July 29, 11pm; Dallas) and Milan (August 2, 5:00 p.m.; Las Vegas). The classic will be played at AT&T Stadium Dallas with a capacity for 80,000 spectators and it will be the only game not to take place in the early hours of Peninsular Time, but can be viewed there from 11:00 p.m
The call to travel to the USA
goalkeeper: Ter Stegen, Iñaki Peña, Ander Astraga
immunity: Araujo, Christensen, Marcos Alonso, Koundé, Eric Garcia, Iñigo Martínez, Lenglet, Balde, Sergino Dest, Mika Faye, Valle and Julian Araujo
midfield player: Oriol Romeu, Pedri, Kessie, Sergi Roberto, De Jong, Gündogan, Gavi, Casadó, Fermín and Aleix Garrido
strikers: Dembélé, Lewandowski, Ansu Fati, Ferran Torres, Raphinha and Lamine Yamal, Ez Abde
Barca B: Ander Astralaga, Mika Faye, Alex Valle, Marc Casado, Fermin Lopez, Aleix Garrido and Lamine Yamal.
Of the 32 footballers who have traveled, seven belong to the subsidiary and 25 to the first team, although not all are in the same situation: some are registered, others renewed but without registration, and also some are about to leave Barcelona.
registered players
Barça currently have only thirteen players registered at La Liga headquarters: Ter Stegen, Eric García, Koundé, Christensen, Pedri, Kessié, Gavi (by order of a judge), Frenkie de Jong, Ferran Torres, Dembélé, Ansu Fati, Raphinha and Robert Lewandowski. To date, they are the only ones Xavi has been able to field in an official game.
Renewed but without tokens
Here are the players who renewed during the season and whose contract extension was included in the profitability plan approved by the league in July. Nevertheless, the club has not yet formalized the registration of the new contracts for Gavi, Araujo, Sergi Roberto, Marcos Alonso and Iñaki Peña.
future renovations
Alejandro Balde and Lamine Yamal have already approved their new contracts, but they are not official yet. The left-back, 18, is set to extend their relationship until at least 2028 and Yamal, who turns 16, will sign his first professional three-year deal.
Logged in but not yet registered
The inclusions of Iñigo Martínez, Gündogan and Romeu are the great novelties of the American tour. As these are friendlies they won’t have any problems playing, but in less than a month La Liga starts (14 August) and they aren’t registered either. Both Iñigo Martinez and Gündogan have a release clause in their contracts, according to which they will be sacked if the club fail to report them before LaLiga’s first matchday. In any case, the directive claims that they have no doubts about the formalization of the chips before facing Getafe.
On the exit ramp
Xavi has neither Lenglet nor Julián Araujo and there are serious doubts about Dest and Kessié and even Abde. The French centre-back is certainly on the verge of returning to Tottenham, the team he was loaned to last season; Mexico’s Araujo will certainly be transferred to Las Palmas and it is unknown what the short-term future of Kessié and Dest or of Abde will be. The Ivorian midfielder could return to the Italian league after confirming there are clubs interested in signing him – notably Juve – and Xavi confirming he will have plenty of competition and possibly only a few minutes in Barça’s midfield . Kessié’s departure would also ease the payroll, a similar situation to Dest. Xavi is targeting the signing of another midfielder and a right-back, a circumstance which, if fulfilled, would further complicate Dest’s continuity. The continuity or transmission of Abde is in the eaves.
The case of Joao Felix
The arrivals will depend on the departures as Barça have to comply with financial fair play and the feasibility plan signed with the league. The situation is so complex that even Oriol Romeu had to contribute a million from his account to complete his move from Girona to Barca – the Barca club paid 3.4 million – while trying to save a lot of salary with Ter Stegen’s contract extension to earn . For the time being, the possible departures of Ansu, Ferran or Eric García are just as complex as the arrival of João Félix. The Portuguese player, who is popular with Barça president Joan Laporta, has offered himself up to Atlético Barça’s annoyance. However, the operation could only be closed in the event of an assignment and a subsequent purchase option.
You can follow EL PAÍS Deportes on Facebook and Twitteror sign up here to receive our weekly newsletter.