26/08/2023 and las 09:00 CEST
The coach and six players from the Villarreal first team share a Blaugrana past. In the youth team and in the Groguet subsidiary there are three more players with roots in La Masia
Quique Setién has opted for the ex blaugrana Jorge Cuenca as a substitute for Pau Torres. The rest have not earned, for the moment, the confidence of the Cantabrian coach
At Barça, the only former Villarreal player is the goalkeeper Iñaki Peña who arrived in Barcelona in the summer of 2012. Peña, born in Alicante, began his training at La Masía in the A Barcelona youth team. At Villarreal, on the other hand, there are many ex-Blaugrana players.
Between the first team, the reserves and the youth team, Villarreal has eight players plus coach Quique Setién with an intense past at Can Barça. These are the nine ‘groguets’ with culé roots.
Quique Setien
Setién’s stage at Barça did not leave great memories. The Spaniard took over from Valverde in January 2020 with the intention of applying his Cruyffist ideas. The pandemic did not help and the squad did not quite get along with his method either. A league that escaped with controversial arbitrations against Real Madrid and the 2-8 against Bayern left him with no options to continue on the Barça bench. At Villarreal, he replaced Emery in October 2022 and ended up qualifying the ‘groguets’ for the Europa League.
Pepe Reina
The veteran Madrid goalkeeper (41 years old) trained at La Masía and made his debut at a very young age (18 years old) with the Barça first team. This is his second stage at Villarreal. Although he finished last season as a starter, Jorgensen has defended Villarreal’s goal in the first two league games this season.
Jorge Cuenca
The left-footed central defender from Madrid (24 years old) played for Barça B, Juvenil A and the Blaugrana first team between 2017 and 2020. At Almería and Getafe he gained experience in the First Division. With the sale of Pau Torres to Aston Villa, he has started the season as a starter in the defensive axis.
Denis Suárez
The Galician midfielder (29 years old) arrived at Barça B in the summer of 2013. After a brilliant season in the Barça subsidiary, he gained experience in the First Division with Sevilla and Villarreal. He then returned to Barça, where he could not consolidate after two and a half seasons in the first team. Arsenal, Celta and Espanyol have been his last clubs before starting a second stage at Villarreal. In the first two days he has only added 21 minutes.
Manu Triggers
The blaugrana past of Manu Trigueros (31 years old) is little known. The midfielder from Talavera de la Reina played with Barça’s Juvenil B team led by Rodolf Borrell in the 2006/07 season. He did not win ownership and acted more as a striker than as a midfielder. At Villarreal he begins his twelfth season in the first team. Despite his great weight in the ‘groguet’ dressing room, he hasn’t played a minute at the start of the League so far.
Elias Akhomach
The Hostalets de Pierola midfielder is a 100% Masía product. He started in Barça’s prebenjamín and made his debut in the first starting team in Xavi’s debut as Barcelona coach. His left foot was one of the great hopes of the Barça youth system and now it is a good alternative for Setién. Although he has a record with the subsidiary, Ilias has already added 13 minutes in the second day of the league at the Mallorca field.
Kiko Female
He was the star signing for Barça B in the 2011/12 season. It was expected that he could make the leap to the first team, but his two seasons in the Blaugrana subsidiary were discreet. Over the years he has gone from winger to right-back. He has started his second season at Villarreal without adding minutes in the first two days of the championship.
Adrià Altimira
Although he has a record from the subsidiary, the versatile player from Cardedeu has already been called up by Setién. Aureli Altimira’s nephew stood out in Barça’s grassroots football from prebenjamín to Juvenil A. He started out as a striker, but over the years he has become a right back. In the last two seasons he has excelled in Andorra.
Fabio Blanco
The Andalusian winger has a record with B. Although he has been called up for two games with the subsidiary, he has not yet made his debut with the team coached by Miguel Álvarez. Fabio has arrived from Barça B, where he had an irregular season and a half. In the Barça subsidiary he did not win ownership neither with Sergi Barjuan nor with Márquez.
Gerard Hernandez
Gerard Hernández was one of La Masía’s most promising pivots, but the man from Reus has changed Barça’s Juvenil A this season for Villarreal’s Juvenil A.
2023-08-26 07:24:32
#Villarreal #Barcelona
