News Of The Day: Barça Pre-Season Starts!

How can the stretch of summer days between the end of one football season and the start of the next seem sooooooooooooooooo long? Is it the transfer rumours? Is it trying to feign interest in international football? In any case, the wait is nearly over: Barça has begun to assemble, for now with those players who didn’t serve international duty this summer and a handful of Barça B players (Oier Olazábal, Sergi Gómez, Planas, Sergi Roberto, Ilie, Rafinha, Kiko Femenía and Lobato); the European champions will join the rest of the team after they’ve had some holidays, except for new signing Jordi Alba, who after winning the Euros will compete at the Olympics too.

This fits nicely with the Pintocalypse theme...

The best news? Not only that David Villa, Dani Alves and Andreu Fontàs have begun training with the rest of the team (though still without full medical clearance), but also that Leo Messi will, for the first time in positively ages, do the whole preseason with Barça.

And not only that, but we get to enjoy Pep’s final gift: instead of shipping our players around the world to make them pick up injuries and jet-lag before the season starts, this year they will instead play a handful of friendlies around Europe, clocking in a modest 14,350 kms of travel, and train at home the rest of the time.

For the full pre-season schedule, check under the jump!

Tuesday, July 24th (Hamburg, Germany): Hamburg SV vs Barça
Saturday, July 28th (Tangiers, Morocco): Raja Club Athletic vs Barça
Tuesday, July 31st (Barcelona, Spain): Barça vs Espanyol (Catalan Supercup) – Match has been moved to September 26!
Saturday, August 4th (Paris, France): PSG vs Barça
Wednesday, August 8th (Gothenburg, Sweden): Manchester United vs Barça
Saturday, August 11th (Bucharest, Romania): Dynamo Bucharest vs Barça

And, though it’s not strictly pre-season, as the regular Liga season will have started by then,

Monday, August 20th (Barcelona, Spain): Barça vs Sampdoria (Gamper Trophy)

Anyone here attending one of those games, or will you join us in our search for dodgy internet streaming to get our football fix? Who are you most looking forwards to seeing on the pitch again?

In the meanwhile, and in case you missed it, you can check the Liga schedule here.

Some Related Barcelona Posts:

• News of the Day: Jordi Alba Presented As New Barça Player
• News of the Day: Jordi Alba, First Barça Signing of the Summer!

Category: Barcelona, Preseason