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Barcelona to begin 2023/24 pre-season on 10 July

Xavi is aware that his squad planning won’t be complete but hopes to have key deals closed before the US tour starts.

Javier Miguel
Javier Miguel
Update:
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Xavi is aware that his squad planning won’t be complete but hopes to have key deals closed before the US tour starts.
Joan M. BascuDiarioAS

Barcelona will get the 2023/24 pre-season underway on Monday 10 July, AS has learned. The players will be expected to turn up at the Ciutat Esportiva early in the morning to undergo the usual medical check-ups - a process which could fill the first two datys back at work. Seeing as the season will end on 6 June - the day before they play a friendly in Japan against Andrés Iniesta’s Vissel Kobe, the squad will have had a little more than a month of vacations.

Xavi will be keen to know whether he will be able to count on all of the expected new arrivals - or at least some of them. However, like every summer, it is always a complicated mission to have all of the planned transfer operations tied up and closed ahead of time - let alone the departures of those who will be moving on - especially the players who still have contracts in force. One player who won’t be reporting at the Ciutat Esportiva is captain Sergio Busquets, who recently announced that he will be leaving the club after 15 seasons with the first team. Sergi Roberto will inherit the armband to become one of the four captains.

A large number of players from the youth teams will be involved - among them, Lamine Yamal, who could enter the dynamics of the first team for all intents and purposes (with a new contract), when he turns 16 on 17 July. The players currently on loan will also return, such as Dest, Abde, Nico and Collado, among others. All of them, except for Abde, will be loaned out again for the new season.

Details of the Blaugrana pre-season have started to emerge - a summer packed with friendlies and events. To begin with, the squad will tour the United States for fourteen days from 19 July to 2 August with four friendlies lined up in different parts of the country: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas and Las Vegas, against rivals including Juventus, Arsenal and AC Milan. Although top of the bill will once again be the Clásico against Real Madrid, which this time will be played in Dallas - not Las Vegas like last year.

Barcelona: confirmed friendlies for the 2023/24 pre-season

  • 6 June Vissel Kobe (National Stadium, Tokyo, Japan)
  • 22 July Juventus (Levi´s Stadium, Santa Clara, USA)
  • 26 July Arsenal (SoFi Stadium, Los Angeles, USA)
  • 29 July Real Madrid (AT&T Stadium, Dallas, USA)
  • 1 August AC Milan (Allegiant Stadium, Las Vegas, USA)
  • 5 August TBA Trofeo Joan Gamper

This year’s Joan Gamper tournament has yet to be finalised - the only certainty is that it will not be played at Camp Nou, which will be immersed in renovation works. It has been mentioned that it could end up being held in the Swiss city of Basel in honor of the club’s founder. After that it will be a question of putting the last touches to the final preparations for the start of LaLiga which will get underway on the weekend of 12/13 August.

Camp Nou will be redeveloped with Barcelona moving to a new, temporary ground next season. Home games will be played at the Olympic Stadium in Montjuïc, which will not be fully operational until mid-September, which means that Xavi’s team will play the first few games of the new campaign away from home.