FC Barcelona News: 17 October 2019

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Barcelona will travel to Eibar two days in advance to avoid Catalan chaos | Football Espana
Barcelona will travel to Eibar on Thursday rather than Friday to avoid the growing unrest in Catalonia, report Cadena Cope. It follows on from a report Diario AS that there was serious consideration to do the 550km journey by bus rather than airplane, but this appears to have been dismissed.

Valverde’s four doubts for the clash with Eibar | Sport
Barcelona’s clash with Eibar on Saturday is looming and Ernesto Valverde has some selection decisions to make, with the defence most troublesome. Pique is suspended, so Lenglet needs a partner. Umtiti may return from injury, but Jean Clair Todibo seems most likely to play.

Leo Messi: Having three kids changed my perspective on life | FC Barcelona
The award was given out by Spanish sports paper Marca which on Thursday also published an interview with the Argentine star. In the piece we get to see the more personal side of Leo Messi as he talks about his day to day life and the challenges that remain for the Barça striker.

Ten challenges for Messi | FC Barcelona
Messi surpassed Andrés Iniesta to go second on the all-time list last season. He has 692 thus far, and although he’ll soon be breaking the 700 barrier, there’s some way to go before he tops the 767 appearances by Xavi Hernandez.

Messi: I’ve never had the need to leave Barcelona, the best club in the world | Goal
Lionel Messi says he has “never had the need to leave the best club in the world”, with Barcelona still very much part of his present and future. Transfer talk has swirled around the Argentine superstar in the past, and he recently revealed that he considered a move in 2013 after being caught up in a tax avoidance case.

Messi lauds Van Dijk as the ultimate defender ahead of Ballon d’Or battle | Goal
Lionel Messi has faced plenty of talented defenders during his time at Barcelona, but Liverpool centre-half Virgil van Dijk has earned special praise from the five-time Ballon d’Or winner as they prepare to do battle for the 2019 award. The Netherlands international crossed paths with a mercurial Argentine forward at the semi-final stage of last season’s Champions League.

Lionel Messi’s Barcelona debut: Oral history of those who saw him first, 15 years ago, vs. Espanyol | ESPN
Oct. 16, 2004 will forever be remembered as a seminal moment in the history of Barcelona. That was the day that Lionel Messi, a floppy-haired and relatively unknown teenager at the time, made his professional debut for the club in a league game against local rivals Espanyol.

Source: barcablaugranes.com