SPAIN
Sergi Roberto: 'I think my form last season was good enough to go to the World Cup'
Sergi Roberto was recalled to the Spain national team under Luis Enrique and says it feels strange that there is only two Barcelona players in the 24-man squad.
Sergi Roberto, Barcelona's versatile right-back, believes that the new rules brought in by Luis Enrique as the Spain manager will be good "for the well-being of the team".
The arrival of the Asturian manager means no mobile phones during meal times and during technical meetings along with other measure. "The rules are things from the dressing room," he says. "We have done some scheduling and other things that will go well for the well-being of the team."
The appointment and arrival of the new manager also means Sergi Roberto can restart his international career although he believes he did enough to make the squad last summer too even though Julen Lopetegui left him out.
"In the summer, I wanted to go to the World Cup," he says. "I believe I had a good season to be there and I had a lot of excitement, but in the end the decision the manager made was to call other players and I respect it. Not, I am happy to return to the national team, am very excited and look forward to play these games."
One of the biggest decision was to leave out Jordi Alba and Barcelona only have two players in the national side, which Roberto says "is strange" but he says he hopes there are more in the future and assures that Alba will work hard to return to the national team.
"In this case, Jordi hasn't been called," he says. "But he is an important player, he is calm, he will keep working at the club and in the end if a call comes, he will be happy."
