Good day, everyone, and welcome to my blog. FC Barcelona has not had it easy since the start of the season, as injuries keep on taking first-team players out of the squad. The latest player to pick up an injury is the squad's team goalkeeper, Marc Andre Ter Stegen, who is also the main captain of the team. Ter Stegen picked up an injury against Villareal last week, and from the test done by the medical team, the injury has to do with his knee, and it has been confirmed that Ter Stegen will be out for the rest of the football season.
It was a huge blow to the team, and even if Ter Stegen was not at his best lately, it's not the best time to lose your number-one goalkeeper on the team. Ter Stegen has been heavily criticized by some Barcelona fans since the defeat away from home against Monaco in the Uefa Champions League. Barcelona lost 2-1 to the French team and honestly, Ter Stegen contributed to that defeat because of his bad decisions which led to Eric Garcia picking up a red card which saw him out of the match in the early minutes of the first half, which made Barca play with 10 men for the reaming 80 minutes of the match.
Since Ter Stegen will be out for the rest of the season, Barcelona's backup goalkeeper after Inaki Pena is the next in line to take Ter Stegen's place, but there is uncertainty about Inaki Pena's capability to fill in that row for the rest of the season. I am a big Inaki Pena supporter and I want to see him given much playing time to prove and show his quality on the field, but when he had that opportunity last season he couldn't put up a solid performance and this is the reason why there is uncertainty about him being the goalkeeper to fill Ter Stegen roll for the rest of the season.
Barcelona explored options, as they can only sign a free agent, and the club approached Wojciech Szczesny. The Polish goalkeeper's contract expired with Juventus, and there was a bit of a saga going on between Szczesny and Juventus as the Italian club was waiting for Szczesny's green light to renew or leave the club so they could know how to activate their plan B, but a the end Szczesny didn't renew and surprisingly gave a statement that he will be retiring from football.
Since Barcelona needed to get a temporary replacement for Ter Stegen, they had options on the table, but Szczesny was the top name on the list. The negotiations started last week, and about two days ago, Szczesny gave the green light and has agreed to come out of retirement to play for FC Barcelona for the rest of the season. Szczesny is an incredible goalkeeper and I would like to see the quality he would give the team at the goalpost this season. I feel bad for Inaki Pena, but it is what it is in this game of football. I know his time will come soon. He just has to keep working hard and improve his abilities at the goalpost.
I am looking forward to the announcement of Wojciech Szczesny from Barcelona and hope he gets integrated into the team smoothly, so guys, that will be all for now. Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend.
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Good decision by Barcelona