#la-liga

#la-liga

He has our full support. The entire club, team-mates and staff are with him and we look forward to having him back,

Pedri made a welcome return to action for Barcelona against Alaves on Saturday, playing 30 minutes in the 3-1 win at Camp Nou. The word is now that the Spain star will start on Tuesday when Barca take on Atletico Madrid in a big La Liga game at Camp Nou. According to Diario Sport, Pedri will return to the starting XI for the game and could play for around an hour against Diego Simeone's side.

Frankie de Jong will miss Barcelona's clash with Alaves at Camp Nou on Saturday after being left out of the squad by Hansi Flick. The Dutchman had been expected to start the game but was a surprise omission seemingly at the last minute. Marc Bernal will take over in midfield and make his first start of the season. There's been no official word on why De Jong is missing today, but multiple outlets are reporting it's for "family reasons" and not due to injury.

A recently published biography of Robert Lewandowski has ignited one of the strangest stories in recent Barcelona history. According to Sebastian Staszewski's book Lewandowski. Prawdziwy ("Lewandowski. The Real Deal"), the Polish striker was reportedly asked to stop scoring goals in the last two matches of the 2022-23 La Liga season. Barcelona had already clinched the title, and with Lewandowski sitting at 23 goals, a board member allegedly worried that reaching 25 would trigger a €2.5 million bonus payment to Bayern Munich.

I'm happy. I think I'm continuing to grow. I finished last season this way, and I'm continuing in the same vein this season. I'm very satisfied with the confidence the manager is showing in me and with the matches I'm playing and will play. There's still a long way to go. There's been some noise from outside, some doubts because of a few bad matches we've had.