{"id":485640,"date":"2026-06-10T12:07:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T12:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/485640\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T12:07:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T12:07:10","slug":"fc-barcelonas-world-cup-links","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/485640\/","title":{"rendered":"FC Barcelona’s World Cup links"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the biggest World Cup in history and is also quite possibly, the most Bar\u00e7a-flavoured one ever ever too. FC Barcelona\u2019s links with the this summer’s tournament in the United States, Mexico and Canada mean that culers tuning in will not only be cheering on their national team, but will also have a reason to follow many other matches, because one way or another they almost all have a Bar\u00e7a connection.<\/p>\n

16 current players<\/p>\n

The most obvious link, though no less important for that, is the strong representation of the current Bar\u00e7a squad. No fewer than 16 Barcelona players, spread across eight different national teams<\/a>, are representing their countries at this World Cup. But that is not the whole story. There are also plenty of former Bar\u00e7a players at the tournament, making it a great opportunity to see them in action once again.<\/p>\n

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Messi, Neymar and many more<\/p>\n

The standout name, inevitably, is Leo Messi, who is defending the title Argentina won in 2022. Among the leading names in the France squad, runners-up at the last World Cup, is the current Ballon d\u2019Or holder Ousmane Demb\u00e9l\u00e9. The former Bar\u00e7a winger is joined by fellow ex-Blaugrana Lucas Digne, as well as Marcus Thuram, son of another former Bar\u00e7a player, Lilian Thuram, and himself a former student at the FCB Escola during his father\u2019s time at the Club.<\/p>\n

Portugal are another team with a strong Bar\u00e7a connection, with Jo\u00e3o F\u00e9lix, Francisco Trinc\u00e3o and N\u00e9lson Semedo all included in the squad. One of Portugal\u2019s opponents in Group K is Colombia, featuring former Bar\u00e7a defender Yerry Mina. Elsewhere, Franck Kessi\u00e9 is one of the key figures for C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire, while Sergi\u00f1o Dest is expected to be the first-choice right-back for one of the host nations, the United States.<\/p>\n

\"_SG_8149\"<\/p>\n

One of the major attractions of this World Cup is Neymar\u2019s return to the Brazil squad, two and a half years after his last call-up. Although he will miss the opening match through injury, the Santos forward remains one of the tournament\u2019s most iconic figures. Another highly gifted attacker is Memphis Depay, now also playing his club football in Brazil and one of the main attacking threats in Ronald Koeman\u2019s Netherlands side.<\/p>\n

Blaugrana coaches<\/p>\n

The hero of Wembley \u201992, Ronald Koeman, is one of three national team coaches with Bar\u00e7a connections at this World Cup. The other two are in less traditional footballing nations: Julen Lopetegui with Qatar and Thomas Christiansen with Panama.<\/p>\n

As in Neymar\u2019s case, another player set to miss his team\u2019s opening match through injury is Ez Abde, one of Morocco\u2019s most in-form players. Also expected to feature prominently for the North Africans is centre-back Chadi Riad, another product of Bar\u00e7a\u2019s youth system.<\/p>\n

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From La Mas\u00eda to the World Cup<\/p>\n

Riad is just one of a sizeable group of former La Masia players at the tournament. Spain\u2019s two left-backs, Marc Cucurella and Alejandro Grimaldo, along with young winger V\u00edctor Mu\u00f1oz, who is currently recovering from injury, are all products of the Bar\u00e7a academy. So too are Uruguay defender Santi Bueno and Japan winger Take Kubo.<\/p>\n

Nor are they the only ones. Paraguay\u2019s leading striker Antonio Sanabria is another former La Masia player, while South Korea midfielder Seung-Ho Paik was once one of the brightest prospects in Bar\u00e7a\u2019s youth ranks.<\/p>\n

In short, there is Bar\u00e7a everywhere you look at what promises to be a fascinating World Cup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is the biggest World Cup in history and is also quite possibly, the most Bar\u00e7a-flavoured one ever…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485641,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105,4277],"class_list":["post-485640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports","tag-text"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}