About to turn 22, and after having received worldwide praise on the 2018 tour of the United States but never settling in the first team or having enough minutes from Valverde, Setién or Koeman, Riqui Puig still maintains the faith in succeeding at Barça. And despite the fact that last season he was the first team player who had the fewest minutes except Matheus Fernandes, he does not intend to give up and, Apparently from the gestures and words that were seen and heard this Monday in Mallorca, he will try again this summer.
Riqui received the affection and the support of two key figures of Barcelona. You are not there now, but as if you were. Guardiola asked Riqui for patience and it reminded him that Iniesta did not settle in the first team of Barça until he was 24 or 25 years old. “If he is determined to continue, football always gives you what you give it,” Guardiola said to raise the spirits of the boy from Matadepera. But the support that interests Riqui the most today is that of its president, Joan Laporta. And the president was loving. He hugged him, made complicit gestures with him and words of support so that he does not lose his smile and persist.
The images of this Tuesday in Mallorca invite us to think that, one more year, Riqui will avoid the match and will try again with the first team. He does not want anything other than to succeed at Barça. Laporta's gestures could have to do with those “conversations” with Koeman. In them, the president would have suggested that the Under-21 international should play more than he did last season. About to reach 22 years old, this course seems to be definitive for Riqui. He wants, however, to be at Barça. And there he will try again.