Going for the Kill at Barcelona?

So far, Emmanuel Amuneke and Gbenga Okunowo are the only Nigerians who have played for FC Barcelona’s A team. A few others have had trials with the B team. Last week, the Nigerian media celebrated Rio Olympics bronze medalist, Usman Muhammed, as he was of

sman Muhammed was officially unveiled as a player of Barcelona on July 1, as he joined the B team on a free transfer after his contract expired at Portuguese side, Uniao Madeira. After impressing the handlers of the B team during a short trial last season, he was handed a deal which would see him start off with the B team of the La Liga side before hopefully progressing through the ranks to the main team.

The news about the interest of the Catalans in the Nigerian star first broke in May after Pep Segura, the head of Barcelona’s Professional Phase expressed an interest in the player.

Segura oversees the development of players at both La Masia Academy and Barcelona B team.

Muhammed would start off in the B team of the club.

Segura noted that the player had distinctive qualities which attracted interest from the club. Some of the mentioned attributes include physical presence and ability to play different position in the midfield.

Muhammed and other fringe players are expected to report a week earlier than their established team-mates as Barcelona Team A Manager, Ernesto Valverde, would use those seven days to decide which of them will join their USA Tour.

In February this year, former Enyimba of Aba player, Ezekiel Bassey moved to Barcelona B team on an initial six-month loan deal, with a provision to make it permanent for a two-year duration but very little was heard of him after his unveiling.

Indeed, former Super Eagles midfielder, Mutiu Adepoju, said recently that he was uncertain about the future of Bassey at Barcelona as he didn’t play a single game for the Barca B team after they got promoted to the Segunda division.

“I have not heard much about him, I know he went on loan to Barcelona and I believe the loan period has expired in June. I don’t know what will happen because it depends on Barcelona, he was on loan so that Barcelona can see him. I don’t know if he had satisfied them in what they were looking for,” Adepoju said.

Bassey who joined on loan from Enyimba has been told he won’t be offered fresh terms and the striker has even started moves to leave the club