De Jong: Aleñá gives up '21' for new Barcelona star
The youth team player is slowly breaking into the first team, but was willing to tak over the number 19 as squad numbers switch around.
As new players arrive, FC Barcelona is making sure that the appropriate shirt numbers are being distributed correctly, with some surprising choices made.
De Jong sticks on 21
After Antoine Griezmann ended up with shirt number 17, leaving the much-rumoured 7 on the back of Philippe Coutinho (at least for the moment), then came the turn of Frenkie de Jong. As we reported last week, the number 21 has special significance for the Dutch youngster, and for this reason, Carles Aleña handed it over, happy to take the number 19 instead, recently vacated by Boateng.
With the Coutinho assumption proving so wrong, time will tell what the final squad list for Barça's new season will look like. Neymar is still reportedly on the agenda, but there are certainly no guarantees about where the Brazilian will play his football after the summer's transfer dealings are complete.