Reports in Spain sensationally claim that Barcelona president Joan Laporta forced head coach Xavi to change his line up.
The team ended up including Robert Lewandowski, Ronald Araújo, and Ilkay Gündogan due to Laporta’s intervention, as revealed by RAC1.
This information completely contradicts the argument given by Xavi Hernández when asked about the reasons for the change, claiming that it was mainly due to changes in travel planning.
The team will stay overnight in Antwerp on Wednesday and return on Thursday, so it was considered good for the entire group to be together and build camaraderie.
If this interference is confirmed, Barca would be facing a very dangerous precedent, as until now, a president had never been seen acting as a coach and giving instructions to the coach to reshape a list of called-up players.
It is worth remembering that Xavi had initially decided that both Lewandowski and Araújo, as well as Gündogan, would stay in Barcelona to save themselves the trip to Belgium and rest for Saturday’s match against Valencia at Mestalla.
In fact, Frenkie de Jong was also initially included among the excluded players. The Dutchman was the only one who stayed in Barcelona, joining the injured Ter Stegen, Gavi, Íñigo, and Marcos Alonso.
Hours after releasing the list, the club sent another one with the three surprising additions, an unprecedented event that fueled all kinds of speculations, which were confirmed after the information leaked by the colleagues of the RAC1 radio station.
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