Barça coach, Carlos Ortegaconfirmed this Thursday that has decided to keep Dika Mem as captainn during which rest of seasondespite the official announcement that the player He will leave the Catalan club in the summer of 2027 to play Fuchse Berlin.
Ortega specified, however, that the next campaignthe last of the French team after more than a decade in the Barça team, Mem will no longer serve as captain.
Also read
“I don’t think the change should be made now. I have spoken to the players and the other captains and although Dika Mem will no longer be captain next season, changing him at this time would not benefit the team. The important thing is for the team to work.” highlighted the Malaga coach.
After the last training session before the trip to Telde (Gran Canaria), host of the final phase of the Spanish Cupwhich will be played on the 7th and 8th of February, the Barça coach acknowledged that he faces the competition with “lack of logical mechanisms” after the national team’s break and warned that it is a title in which rivals can surprise “after so much time apart.”
“We have a title within our reach and, if I put myself in the shoes of our rivals, it is an opportunity in which they will put all their effort, because that is where they can catch us after so long without competing together”he explained.
With the squad now complete after the incorporation of the last internationals, the goalkeeper Emil NielsenEuropean champion with Denmark, and full-back Seif ElderaAfrican champion with Egypt, Ortega indicated that the players will return “with the customs of their teams”in addition to different mood states according to the results obtained.
The rival in the semi-finals will be Bidasoa Irunwhich the Málaga coach described as one of the teams that has given Barça the most difficulties in recent years and which he defined as the “second best model” of the Asobal League, highlighting its “maximum respect” and the prediction of a match “very demanding.”
In turn, the extreme Ian Barrufetwhose renewal until 2029 was announced this Wednesday, highlighted the importance of “change chip” after a European Championship in which Spain, despite being eliminated in the second phase, gave “one step forward” and showed that in the future it could “achieve very good things.”
Also read
“It’s complicated, it requires a change of mentality, but we know what we are facing. The training and preparation time has been short, but we will go this weekend with the intention of winning and doing our best”concluded
