Frenkie de Jong belongs to a new group of captains in the fifth season at FC Barcelona | Foreign football

In the past, Johan Cruijff and Philip Cocu also regularly wore the captain’s armband with the Catalan flag. As usual with FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, a group of captains has been appointed with a clear pecking order. The main focus is on the number of years of service with the club.

It means at Barcelona that Sergi Roberto (31) is now the first captain. The right back / right half has been playing for Barcelona since he was fourteen, where the Catalan has now played 349 duels in the main force. Sergi Roberto succeeds Sergio Busquets, who got the role two years ago after Lionel Messi left for Paris. Before that, Carles Puyol, Xavi Hernández and Andrés Iniesta, who also grew up at Barcelona, ​​were the captains in Camp Nou for fifteen years.

German goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen (31) is number two in the pecking order, followed by defender Ronald Araújo (24) from Uruguay. Frenkie de Jong is number four in the pecking order. He will therefore only wear the band when Sergi Roberto, Ter Stegen and Araújo are not on the field.

In the summer of 2019, De Jong made the switch from Ajax to FC Barcelona for 86 million euros, the dream club from his youth where he sometimes came on vacation. The midfielder from Arkel had a very turbulent summer last year and was pushed to the exit by chairman Joan Laporta who wanted to create space in his player budget, but De Jong refused to move to the very interested Manchester United of his old coach Erik ten Hag. De Jong fought his way back into the team and was an important link in the team that convincingly became champion in La Liga last season, although that rarely happened with frivolous football.

After four seasons with Barcelona, ​​De Jong has played 183 games for the club, where he has already had five different trainers (Ernesto Valverde, Quique Setién, Ronald Koeman, Sergi Barjuán and Xavi) in four years. He scored 26 goals and 31 assists. At the end of last season De Jong was allowed to wear the captain’s armband. That was on May 23 in round 36, when Barcelona had been champion for over a week. De Jong wore the band during the 3-1 defeat at Real Valladolid and was critical of his team afterwards, but also grateful for his debut as captain. ,,There are no excuses, because at this club you always have to win. They risked their lives and we were no good. I am proud to wear the band, because I have always wanted to play for Barça,” De Jong said after the match.

The selection of Barcelona left for the United States on Wednesday. There, Xavi’s team will play practice matches against Juventus, Arsenal, Real Madrid and AC Milan for the next ten days. Then Barcelona will play against Tottenham Hotspur on August 8 in the traditional match for the Trofeu Joan Gamper. This will not be played in Camp Nou, because an almost completely new stadium will be built there in the next year and a half.

Until the new stadium is ready (expected to be late 2024), Barcelona will play its home games at the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys, the stadium of the 1992 Olympic Games on Montjuïc Hill. Barcelona opens the new season in La Liga on Sunday, August 13 with the away match at Getafe, a week later Cádiz visits Catalonia.