FC Barcelona has received a huge boost for its Spanish Super Cup campaign, which kicks off with Wednesday’s semifinal clash against Athletic Bilbao.
Unfortunately, despite being part of the organization of players who will travel to Saudi Arabia to try to recover the name of arch-enemy Real Madrid, Dani Olmo and Pau Víctor still cannot play any role in the upcoming actions.
The summer signings have been granted transitory licenses until December 31, but La Liga and the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), which organizes the Super Cup, have refused to grant them new permission to play for the Blaugrana during the rest of 2024/2025. season.
That doesn’t mean that other Barca stars haven’t been given the green light to lace their up their boots, however.
In mid-December, confirmation that Lamine Yamal had succumbed to a right ankle injury dealt a blow in the Champions League for coach Hansi Flick and his men.
The Catalans were already on a bad run of form and continued to struggle in his absence, subsequently surrendering their Spanish top flight lead to both Madrid teams after previously being as many as six points in front at the summit.
Snatching back the Spanish Super Cup title won in 2023 under Xavi Hernandez – but then ceded to Carlo Ancelotti and Co. this time last year – would restore pride for Barca and give it the kick start needed for the business end of the season.
In its quest to win a maiden piece of silverware in the Flick era, Barca will most certainly need its star right winger, who on Monday trained with the first team and has been given the ‘OK’ to feature against Athletic Club.
Flick now needs to decide whether to make the bold move to start Lamine from the offset versus the Basques or instead err on the side of caution by naming the teenager in the matchday squad yet only introducing him towards the end of the action via a cameo.
While it is of great importance to do the task at Athletic’s expense, it is also not important to overload Lamine, as we have noted in the past with Ansu Fati, Gavi and Pedri to call up only a few young talents.
A community. Many voices. Create a free account to share your thoughts.
Our community is about connecting people through open and thoughtful conversations. We want our readers to share their views and exchange ideas and facts in a safe space.
To do this, please comply with the posting regulations in our site’s terms of use. Below we summarize some of those key regulations. In short, civilized.
Your message will be rejected if we notice that it appears to contain:
User accounts will be blocked if we become aware that users are engaged in:
So, how can you be a power user?
Thank you for reading our Community Guidelines. Read the full list of publishing regulations discovered in our site’s terms of use.