Eric Garcia and the price he must pay to play for Barca

Eric Garcia and the price he must pay to play for Barca

Eric Garcia / | sport

The Man City centre back has barely featured for his club in recent months

The end of the season has not been easy with Eric Garcia. He’s not getting game time at Man City and Pep Guardiola has confirmed what we all knew, he’s poised to come to Barcelona.

Barca approached him over a year ago to tell him they wanted him. He agreed it. And at the end of last season he told Guardiola that he would not stay even though City wanted to renew his deal.

He explained his reasons and Pep and the club understood them. Barca were not able to reach a deal with City in the transfer windows since and will get him for free in the summer.

Despite everything, Guardiola gave him minutes at the start of the season. He played 90 in two of the first six PL games, and started against Porto in the Champions League. However he was getting phased out and when he got injured he was out for a while, then got coronavirus.

Eric was not in the Carabao Cup final squad, or FA Cup semi against Chelsea. He’s missed five squads out of nine in the PL. Pep prefers Ruben Dias, Stones and Laporte, while Nathan Ake is also there.

Garcia is liked by his team-mates, he’s never prioritised anything above the interests of the squad despite his situation. His attitude is excellent.

“I would like to have 15 Eric Garcias in the squad,” said Pep. “For the way he acts, his behaviour. He always thinks about the team, he’s got a good attitude in the good moments and in the bad ones. He helps the coach and the staff day to day, I really like him.”

The last few months have been the toll Eric Garcia must pay to play for Barca.

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