This season’s Champions League will convey a number of notable reunions between Barcelona and their opponents.
The sport towards Como will see Cesc Fabregas and Alex Valle return to the Spotify Camp Nou, whereas Galatasaray’s Ilkay Gundogan will face his former Barcelona teammates.
PSG present essentially the most star-studded reunion, with Luis Enrique, Lucas Digne, Pedro Fernandez ‘Dro’, Ousmane Dembele and Ferran Torres all set to come back up towards their former membership.
And, as highlighted by Mundo Deportivo, Barcelona’s first Champions League opponent of the first season, Feyenoord, even have two figures with sturdy connections to the Catalan facet: defender Mika Marmol and head coach Giovanni van Bronckhorst.
Mika Marmol’s Barcelona journey
Marmol joined La Masia in 2018 and spent 4 years at Barcelona. He made only one aggressive look, approaching within the ninetieth minute of a goalless draw away to Getafe underneath Xavi Hernandez in February 2022.
Marmol then left Barça the following summer season to hitch Andorra. After a formidable season with the Catalan facet, he earned a transfer to UD Las Palmas and made the step as much as La Liga.
He spent two seasons within the prime flight earlier than Las Palmas have been relegated in 2024/25. Final season, he performed in LaLiga 2 and established himself as one of many division’s standout centre-backs.
His performances earned him a transfer to Feyenoord this summer season, and the 25-year-old defender has already made 5 official appearances for the Dutch membership, that includes at centre-back and left-back.
Van Bronckhorst’s profitable Barcelona spell
Van Bronckhorst joined Barcelona within the 2003/04 season on mortgage from Arsenal. His performances throughout that marketing campaign satisfied the Catalan membership to make the transfer everlasting.
After going trophyless in his first season, the Dutch full-back gained his first La Liga title with the Blaugrana the next yr, scoring 4 objectives within the course of.
He went on so as to add one other league title, two Spanish Tremendous Cups and the 2005/06 Champions League throughout his time in Catalonia.
That Champions League triumph was significantly memorable as a result of Barcelona defeated his former facet Arsenal within the ultimate. He left Barcelona for Feyenoord after the 2006/07 season.
From Feyenoord participant to supervisor
Van Bronckhorst started his teaching profession at Feyenoord, the membership the place he had loved appreciable success as a participant.
After working as an assistant and managing the reserve facet, he took cost of the primary staff in 2015. Throughout his first spell, he managed 176 matches earlier than leaving in 2019 and gained 5 trophies.
The previous left-back subsequently had a short spell in Chinese language soccer earlier than managing Rangers in Scotland and Besiktas in Turkey.
Final season, he joined Arne Slot’s teaching employees at Liverpool. Following Slot’s departure from the membership, Van Bronckhorst returned to Feyenoord for a second spell as head coach.
His return has began positively, with Feyenoord recording three wins and two attracts from their first 5 matches.
