Barca gave away Alena’s 21 shirt, and he isn’t happy

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Frenkie de Jong has taken his number

This might crack my top five favorite stories of the year. Apparently, when Barcelona signed Frenkie De Jong, they promised the lad the 21 shirt number. Now, on the surface this isn’t a big deal. Promising a newly minted player a certain jersey number is pretty normal. The problem, is that Carles Alena already had the 21 shirt number and no one consulted or asked him about changing.

“Giving the No.21 to De Jong was something between him and me,” he said. ”I would have liked a message from the board because they promised him the number without notifying me.

”That left a bad taste, it didn’t feel good. I’ve always behaved well with the club.”

Alena | Source

This is funny because you can clearly imagine the meetings with Josep Bartomeu and other Barcelona brass about de Jong.

Bartomeu: “So what can we do to get this deal done?”

Random important rich person in the room: “Well sir, de Jong is quite keen regarding the 21 shirt number.”

“Perfect, give him the kit number and we’ll sign the deal”

Another rich person: “There’s a problem, Alena already has that number.”

Bartomeu stares with a glare while chewing on a pistachio muffin: “Will that be a problem?”

Yet another rich guy: “We’ll take care of it.”

Poor Alena.

Source: barcablaugranes.com