Loaned Ter Stegen unlikely to play against Barcelona | OneFootball

It is not often that you see FC Barcelona arrange high-profile loan deals for their players to move elsewhere. Loans are generally a means for fringe players to gain more game time and continue their development.

However, that trend has been broken in the case of Marc-Andre Ter Stegen, the club captain who has fallen down the pecking order and has now joined Girona on loan until the end of the season for regular football.

More importantly, according to SPORT, it has emerged that the club has included a fear clause in the loan agreement with Girona.

A fear clause is something clubs often include in loan deals to prevent the player from facing the parent club. In this case, it would prevent Girona from fielding Ter Stegen when they face Barcelona later this season.

While this does not mean Girona are forbidden from fielding the German, it means they would have to pay financial compensation to Barcelona to break the fear clause and include Ter Stegen in the starting XI, if they truly consider it worthwhile.

It is rare to see clubs trigger a fear clause, which means it is unlikely that Ter Stegen features against Barcelona. It is the parent club’s way of ensuring that the loaned-out player does not come back to haunt them.

Barcelona, of all clubs, knows how this can backfire. When they loaned Philippe Coutinho to Bayern, they did not include a fear clause, and he returned to score a brace in an 8-2 win for the German club in the Champions League.

It is good to see Barcelona avoiding that scenario, and that Ter Stegen is unlikely to take the field against us in the upcoming meeting between the two sides.