In recent months, a folder with Ricky Rubio's name remains on the table of Juan Carlos Navarro, the general director of basketball at Barça. The dream of seeing the El Masnou point guard dressed in Barça again has always flown over the Palau and the managers of the section, with Navarro himself and his right (and left) hand Mario Fernández at the helm, have closely monitored his situation , always prioritizing your recovery.
The club has been in direct contact with the player and his environment to offer him all the necessary help in the difficult process he has faced in recent times, a communication that has intensified in the last two months due to the possibility of his return. Ricky's recovery is going very well, hence his desire to return to training and test himself for a hypothetical return to competition, and Barça has made every facility available for him to do so in what was his last home in Europe, back in 2011.
The weight of the conversations has been carried by Navarro and Mario Fernández but in recent weeks Roger Grimau, the tenant of the bench, has also been involved to offer his point of view on the situation. The technician's response has been very positive. As in the case of Navarro, Grimau shared a dressing room with Ricky during his two years at Barça, in which the Euroleague won in Paris in 2010 stands out, and he maintains a very good relationship with him. For its part, the current squad has been on the sidelines of the conversations until this Sunday, when the captains were informed that Ricky Rubio would join training today.
Timing is also important in this case. Once the player's recovery is underway, with his possible return already a real option on the table, February 7 at 6 p.m. is presented as a key date, which is when the Euroleague closes its transfer market. As happened with Pau Gasol two years ago, the possibility of incorporating a world-class player like Ricky Rubio, who at 33 years old is still in physical prime, represents a unique opportunity for the Barça team in the face of their aspirations to qualify. for their fourth consecutive final four.
In this sense, Barça has worked well and would have no problems incorporating Ricky Rubio into its squad if his integration into the training sessions confirms its good feelings and is agreed upon by both parties. In the Euroleague, the Blaugrana currently have 17 players registered but three of them (Jakucionis, Sarr and Nessah) are under 20 years old and do not count towards the maximum of 16 that the regulations allow, so at a bureaucratic level there would be no no problem incorporating a new player. Furthermore, the economic aspect is not a priority for Ricky today, and if he decided to try it he would not object to reaching an agreement. But Barça also has more than a million euros reserved to reinforce itself, so the financial fair play that threatens the club so much should not be any obstacle either.
At a game level, his arrival would mean covering the enormous gap that Barça has in the direction of the game, where Satoransky has not quite taken a step forward and Jokubaitis seems stagnant in his progression. Ricky, a point guard with an innate ability to assist – 7.4 assists on average in his 12 seasons in the NBA – would give a giant leap in quality to Grimau's Barça.
