A large delegation from FC Barcelona landed on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. local time (1:30 a.m. in Spanish) at Miami’s Fort Lauderdale airport. Up to 11 directors, led by the president Joan Laporta, accompanied the team on the American expedition, awaiting the arrival of Xavi Hernández and Robert Lewandowski. The Pole will travel this Sunday directly from Madrid and his arrival is expected at 3:25 p.m. local time.
New arrivals ???? pic.twitter.com/266Q48WDyb
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The ‘9’ will pass the medical examination and will sign his contract until 2026 this Sunday, before joining the group to start training. In this way, Lewandowski could debut in Wednesday’s friendly against Inter Miami at the Lockhart Stadium (2:00 am in Spain), since last week he had trained with Bayern in Munich and is ready to play if the coaching staff considers it so. Otherwise, his debut would take place next Saturday in Las Vegas, against Real Madrid.
For its part, Xavi will have to wait until Monday to resolve the misunderstanding with his visa. The coach from Terrassa was denied entry to US soil due to his presence on Iranian territory while he belonged to Al Sadd. The club will do everything possible so that the process is resolved in the morning hours and the Egarense coach manages to be present at the press conference on Monday, scheduled for 6:15 p.m. local time.
In the meantime, Òscar Hernández, his ‘second’, together with Sergio Alegre, will take charge of the practices. In total, the blaugrana entourage included 165 members between players, coaching staff, managers and other club employees. The 28-player roster features Miralem Pjanic, as well as Memphis Depay and Ez Abde, three names with which the board will try to cash in the coming days. Gerard Piqué also joined, who will have to get used to being a substitute for the first time since 2008.
Four friendlies in 17 days on tour for Barça
Barça will play on Wednesday 20 the first of the four friendlies scheduled for the American tour against Miami Inter, club chaired by David Beckham. On Saturday 23 the rival will be the Real Madrid, being the second edition of the ‘Clasico’ to be played in the United States after the game played in 2017 (Culé triumph 3-2, Neymar Jr.’s last game as a Blaugrana). On Tuesday the 26th, the team will travel to Dallas to face the Juventusclosing on Saturday the 30th in New Jersey against NY Red Bulls.