The Barcelona vs. National Teams Saga Continues

By Elizabeth Hanchett, writing from New York

Vicente del Bosque’s call-up list for the August 11th friendly against Mexico in Mexico City is headline news in Barcelona. Out of the twenty-two players called up yesterday morning, seven of them are from FC Barcelona. All of the players called up for the World Cup made the list, including Víctor Valdés, and only Andrés Iniesta missed the list because of fear of injury.

The problem is, the seven players called up for the Mexico-Spain friendly is only the tip of the iceberg. Besides the seven players going to Mexico City next week, Bojan and Jeffren have been called up for Spain’s U-21 side in Finland for a qualifying match, Zlatan Ibrahimović has been called up for a friendly with Sweden, Dani Alves is headed to the US for a friendly with Brazil against the US, and Leo Messi has also been called up for a friendly with Argentina, though Barcelona are doing all they can to not let him go.