Jul 30, 2010
Spanish La Liga champions FC Barcelona announced it’s squad ahead of the tour match against the K-League All-Stars in Seoul on August 4th.
Pep Guardiola‘s squad will be without all of its players from Spain’s World Cup winning side as Andres Iniesta, Xavi, David Villa, Carles Puyol, Sergi Busquets, Victor Valdes, and Pedro have been excluded after a long season of football. Exclusion of Spain‘s World Cup heroes will surely be a blow to Korean football fans, despite Lionel Messi making the trip to the Far East along with Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Bojan Krkic, and Dani Alves among a few other first team members.
Fifteen of Barcelona’s 31-man squad are part of its reserves team, Barcelona Atletic, in the Spanish third division. Most of them have never played at senior level for the 20-time Spanish champions. Even some of the notable names from Barcelona Atletic such as Thiago Alcantara, Martin Montoya, and Ruben Rochina have been left out of the squad due to injuries.
The disappointed fans are likely to point the finger at the K-League Association as it went out of its way to reschedule league fixtures to arrange this match, only to have the Catalans, without half of their first team regulars, play a friendly against an arbitrary squad of K-League players in middle of the season.
Click here to see K-League All-Star squad
Barcelona’s travel squad to Korea
GK — Jose Manuel Pinto, Ruben Mino, Olazábal, Jordi Masip
DF — Dani Alves, Rafael Marquez, Gabi Milito, Maxwell, Marc Muniesa, Eric Abidal, Henrique, Sergi Gomez Sola, Armando Lozano, Andreu Fontas
MF –Seydou Keita, Aleksandre Hleb, Jonathan Dos Santos, Adriano Correia, Marti Riverola, Ilie Sánchez, Sergi Roberto, Victor Sanchez Mata
FW — Lionel Messi, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Bojan Krkic, Jeffren, Jonathan Soriano, Eduard Oriol, Benjamin Martinez, Cristian Tello, Manuel “Nolito” Agudo Duran
