Nine first-team players will be available for Barcelona pre-season from the start | OneFootball

Hansi Flick’s preseason for Barcelona ahead of the new season will be heavily affected by the FIFA World Cup and the heavy participation of first-team players in the same.

Every player participating in the event is entitled to three weeks of vacation after their last game in the competition, implying that players who make it all the way to the final may be unavailable until the second week of August.

The flip side of the same, however, is that players whose nations are eliminated early will be back earlier in the pre-season, possibly even for the tour scheduled in England.

Who will return early?

As reported by SPORT in a recent update, nine first-team players are expected to be part of the pre-season from day one as they did not participate in the event.

Marc-Andre Ter Stegen, Wojciech Szczesny, Alejandro Balde, Andreas Christensen, Gerard Martín, Hector Fort, Marc Casado, Marc Bernal and Roony Bardghji are the nine players.

Ter Stegen could report for pre-season before leaving for Ajax. (Photo by Eric Alonso/Getty Images)

Beyond that, three more players are expected to return earlier than others as they have already been eliminated from the competition. The three names are Frenkie de Jong, Ronald Araujo and Raphinha.

Araujo’s Uruguay were eliminated in the group stages on June 27th, and his three-week holiday means he is expected to return by July 18th. However, he may even return earlier given that he did not play at the World Cup.

De Jong, meanwhile, was eliminated three days later on June 30th, and he is thus expected to return by around July 22nd.

Raphinha could join Barcelona on their England pre-season tour. (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

Raphinha, who saw the exit door just last night, will be late to join and will see his three-week holiday officially end on July 27th.

What is Barcelona’s pre-season plan?

As matters stand, the Catalans’ preseason is slated to begin on July 13th with the traditional medicals and will mark the beginning of rigorous training under Hansi Flick.

The first friendly is scheduled for July 24th against Europa and the club will thereafter travel to England for a couple of matches between July 27 and August 3.

All three players who will return early may make it back in time for the tour in England.