Looking ahead to Sunday’s game against Getafe, Ronald Koeman recover players like Ter Stegen, Coutinho and Mingueza. Great news for the coach from a sporting point of view, but also a bureaucratic ‘problem’, since footballers like Pjanic or Umtiti They are still in the squad and four days after Sunday’s clash, Barça is missing numbers. This overbooking of chips may force you to use the number 10 of Leo Messi, despite the fact that in principle it was a number that both the club and the dressing room wanted this season to be free.
League regulations do not allow the removal of numbers, as is done in other leagues or other sports, and it also requires that the numbers of the first team go from 1 to 25. And numbers 1, 13 and 25 are reserved for goalkeepers and only if there are 23 field players and only two goalkeepers, one of these numbers can be for a footballer.
With all this, Barça has a problem regarding the registration of Coutinho and Mingueza looking forward to Sunday. Right now only 10 and 25 are free, so they are the numbers that they should use against Getafe if there are no exits before. And if they play for a single minute, they can no longer change their number, according to the regulations of the League.
At the moment on the website of the League Coutinho appears without a bib, while Mingueza it does not appear between the Barcelona squad. On the official website of the club, the defender wears the 28 that he wore last season, a number that he could continue to wear if he maintains a team player record. But in principle Mingueza, so he has it signed in his renewal, he should already be a first team player for all purposes.
Two players with the 14
On the same Barça website Coutinho It does appear with a number, the 14 that he used last season. But it is the same number with which it also appears King Manaj, since the Albanian forward has been registered in the League as a new player of the first team and has been called up by Koeman in the first two days with number 14. Having not debuted, Coutinho he could get it back, but a new one would have to be assigned to the Albanian. AND Alex Collado, to which the club is looking for an exit but for now is part of the squad, does not have an assigned number either.
Coutinho could change the number
At first Pjanic will end up leaving the club and will release number 8, which could be for Coutinho. But in that case Mingueza would be obliged to inherit on 10 Messi, since the League does not allow the use of a goalkeeper’s number if there are free numbers. Or that the defender agrees with the club and agrees to keep the record of B even if he is a player of the first team for all purposes. And the case of Collado