Barcelona veteran wants to stay despite rocky relationship with club's leaders: Reports
According to SPORT, Jordi Alba is keen to stay at Barcelona despite having a rocky relationship with the club's leaders.
Alba has made only 12 appearances for the Catalan club in all competitions this season, making nine starts and providing two assists. However, Alba's form hasn't been the best in recent times.
The emergence of Alejandro Balde and new signing Marcos Alonso has further pushed the veteran star down the pecking order.
His long-time teammate Gerard Pique recently retired from football and Sergio Busquets' contract is also set to come to an end in the summer.
Recent tests show that Jordi Alba's physical parameters are the best that they have been in over five years.
— @Alfremartinezz https://t.co/ANGJluree7
Alba's current contract runs until 2024. Since joining the Blaugrana from Valencia in 2012, Alba has made 441 appearances for the Spanish club, scoring 25 goals and providing 96 assists.
However, once considered indispensable, Alba is not the player he once was and his future at Barcelona remains uncertain.
Barcelona attacker Robert Lewandowski is confident the club will bounce back next year
Robert Lewandowski has been quite spectacular for the Catalan club since joining from Bayern Munich in the summer. In 19 games across all competitions, the Polish striker has scored 18 goals and provided four assists.
However, Barcelona have been knocked out of the UEFA Champions League in the group stages. They will play Manchester United in the play-offs for the UEFA Europa League next.
Lewandowski is confident of the club bouncing back into the Champions League next year.
After receiving the Bota de Oro trophy, the Polish hitman said (via MARCA):
"I'm sure that next year will be very good, Now I know why Barcelona is more than a club and is very important. We're on the right path, what happened yesterday [comeback win at Osasuna] was good, these games show the desire we have to win."
BREAKING: Robert Lewandowski is in the Poland squad for the 2022 World Cup. https://t.co/6sJbOQoOfo
When quizzed on whether he still has a competition with former Bundesliga foe Erling Haaland, Lewandowski said:
Thank you so much, I am very proud, I have worked very hard for this prize and thanks also to my former teammates at Bayern, he best thing for me is the team winning, more than individual prizes or goals, but I'll try to do it again, although it will be hard. It's been easy to settle in here thanks to the squad and coaches, but there's a lot of work that goes into that."
Haaland, who joined Manchester City from Borussia Dortmund in the summer, has registered 23 goals and three assists in 17 matches in all competitions.