Kessié, the great novelty at the start of Barça's preseason

He has not yet been registered or presented as a new Barça player, an act that will take place this Wednesday, but Franck Kessié will be today at the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper on the first day of the Barça pre-season.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
03 July 2022 Sunday 23:54
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Kessié, the great novelty at the start of Barça's preseason

He has not yet been registered or presented as a new Barça player, an act that will take place this Wednesday, but Franck Kessié will be today at the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper on the first day of the Barça pre-season. The Ivorian will pass the pertinent medical tests in the morning (9 am) with his new teammates and in the afternoon (7 pm) he will participate in a first training session where absences stand out above all.

Unlike his first season, when he landed with the team in the midst of a crisis, this time Xavi Hernández faces his second year on the Blaugrana bench from the start, with time to prepare in his own way for a year where excuses are worthless. For a long time he has made clear the role he wants for all his pupils and he also communicated at the end of May to Òscar Mingueza, Riqui Puig, Samuel Umtiti, Neto Murara and Martin Braithwaite that they are not in his plans. None will be on July 4 when they return to work, called off by the player from Egar to define his future away from the Camp Nou. A clear statement of intent. In the case of the Danish striker, he has vacations until July 11 like the rest of the hospitalizations for having participated with Denmark in the June games, although the message is the same. Everyone has known Xavi's intentions for a long time and yet his departures continue to be stalled. The only one who seems close to packing for Tottenham is Lenglet, who will not be under the coach's orders today either.

The rest of the members of the squad will participate this week in eight training sessions with double sessions on Tuesday and Thursday. Rey Manaj, Trincão and Collado, the only one who initially hopes to stay, also return to the azulgrana discipline. Pjanic, who will return with the rest of the internationals, does not count for Terrassa either.

In addition to Kessié, who promises to add muscle to the midfield, the other new face will be Pablo Torre, a priori player for the reserve team but who will train with the first team throughout the preseason. Despite having been summoned to Spain in June, although without playing for a minute, another of the protagonists in this first week will be Ansu Fati, who has already been training for several days on his own with the aim of recovering his best version, the one that He has been seen in the last two years for injuries.