"Lionel Messi, renew! Stay here!" chant fans at Barcelona's session
Lionel Messi was the player most chanted for by the children, many with Barcelona and Catalonia flags
FC Barcelona’s first team trained on Tuesday with open doors at the Miniestadi, as is traditional. Despite the cold, 10,408 fans turned up to watch. Luis Enrique and his technical team were the first to come out onto the pitch, then they were followed by the players, with the Barcelona anthem playing over the PA. Quickly the team got to work, in two groups, doing rondos.
The session lasted an hour and a half, ending with a mini game between three teams in a small portion of the pitch. Lionel Messi was the player most chanted for by the children, many with Barcelona and Catalonia flags, and some even chanted “Messi renew, Messi stay here, Messi renew, Messi stay here, oooeee, ooooeee”. Other shouts for him included “Sexy!” “You’re the best in the world”. And when he was close to the fans he responded with timid acknowledgement.
Other notes:
Mathieu seems to have recovered completely from his injury.
There were plenty of overseas fans there, from Brazil, Venezuela, England, France, Argentina, Uruguay… Barcelona has no borders.
The squad headed to hospitals after the game, to meet ill children.
The next session of training takes place on Wednesday at 11am at the usual venue of the Ciutat Esportiva. Lucho will give a press conference afterwards ahead of the Copa del Rey game against Athletic Club.
