MADRID, 16 One. (EUROPA PRESS) –
FC Barcelona has announced this Sunday that it will establish the tradition of assigning a number, corresponding to the order of debut from the year the Masia was inaugurated, to the footballers who debut with the first team in state or international competitions.
From now on, all players who have passed through one of the lower categories since the 1979-80 season will be assigned a number that determines the order of their debut. The list has been prepared by the club’s Documentation and Studies Center.
Another of the criteria used to establish the order of each one in the event that several players make their debut in the same game, is based on the minute of the debut and if it also coincides, the alphabetical order of their respective football names.
The first player to appear with number 1 on the list drawn up from the 1979-80 season is Joan Josep Estella, who made his debut in a League match and played a total of 100 official matches with the first team.
Leo Messi has 93, Xavi Hernández 70, Andrés Iniesta 85, Pep Guardiola 44, Carles Puyol 75, Guillermo Amor 33, Gerard Piqué 119, Víctor Valdés 83, Sergio Busquets on 120 and Jordi Alba on 143. Among the latest debutants, Ansu Fati is number 178, Ronald Araujo 179, Mingueza 181, Nico González 185 and Gavi 186, while Estanis Pedrola closes the list with 192 .
In addition, each player from the reserve team who makes his debut with the first team will receive a shirt with the number of his debut. In the same way, this shirt will be delivered to those players who have followed this path, at the time of its renewal.