Jordi Alba's great opportunity to be in Qatar

At 33 years old, the chances of playing in a World Cup are shrinking.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
25 September 2022 Sunday 20:40
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Jordi Alba's great opportunity to be in Qatar

At 33 years old, the chances of playing in a World Cup are shrinking. And in the case of Jordi Alba (L'Hospitalet, 1989) the Qatar event clearly seems like the last train. Of course, he is almost on the wagon, he only needs the last step.

With Luis Enrique at the head of the locomotive, no passenger is fooled. Things are clear. When he trusts someone and responds, he has a lot to gain. Although later in his club he did not end up being a fixture. There are many cases and Alba is one of them.

Undisputed in Barça's eleven in the last decade, the Barça winger is experiencing a difficult start to the season, in which the competition has multiplied while Xavi's confidence has waned.

Jordi Alba now has to fight against history... and against Alejandro Balde and Marcos Alonso. Finding minutes is an arduous task but despite everything Luis Enrique has called him back. Trust him.

But it was not always like this. Already in his time at Barça they had his hands and his minuses, which were later reproduced with Spain. Luis Enrique did not have the side in his first calls until in October 2018 he recovered him. Exactly one year later, Alba disappeared from the Spanish charts again, an absence that lasted a year. Since then, he has been a regular starter with Luis Enrique, with a few exceptions, and a man of his complete confidence, as demonstrated in this last break, in which he has remained in the squad.

And the Asturian coach has already made it clear in the preview of the match against Switzerland. If his soccer players respond to him in the "selection context" they will have a long way to go to the desert. And Jordi Alba knows it well.

The Barça player already has two World Cups on his resume but they are not pleasant memories. In Brazil 2014, his World Cup debut, Spain left through the back door at the first opportunity. Four years later, in Russia, the red team did reach the round of 16 but the Lopetegui earthquake in the days before the tournament marked those weeks of sad memory. But now things are different. Luis Enrique's team comes from being a finalist in the Nations League and a semifinalist in the last European Championship, in which they only lost on penalties. And he will arrive in Qatar with all the ambition. A scenario that Alba will try not to miss.

In Spain, it seems that both Alba and Gayà are in the front row to take over the left side of the red but the competition is fierce and a mistake can be lethal. Marcos Alonso himself, Alba's teammate now at Barça, is to Luis Enrique's liking and will also work hard to be in Qatar. Reguilón is another name that cannot be ruled out... There are less than two months left for the World Cup and there are many things open. That is why Alba knows that she has her last chance to show the coach that she can trust him. The matches in Switzerland and Portugal will mark his future.