Following Ilkay Gundogan’s criticism of his Barcelona teammates, there has been plenty of talk about how the German’s words went down with ‘sections of the dressing room’. Now it has been revealed how those sections are usually divided, although not necessarily regarding the tension between Ronald Araujo and Gundogan.
The groups, as is natural, tend to be divided by age and nationality as a general rule, the largest being the Spanish-speaking group, consisting of Marcos Alonso, Pedri, Gavi, Ferran Torres, Marcos Alonso and Inigo Martinez.
Meanwhile the young players who have recently risen to the senior side tend to stick together, say Sport, with Pau Cubarsi, Hector Fort, Marc Guiu, Lamine Yamal, Fermin Lopez, third-choice goalkeeper Ander Astralaga and Marc Casado forming a more timid group. Lamine Yamal and Cubarsi, as well as Fermin and Gavi, are believed to be particularly close due to their friendships formed at La Masia.
Roberto does have a strong friendship with some of Northern Europeans too, with Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Frenkie de Jong and more recently Andreas Christensen spending time together. In particular with ter Stegen, Gundogan and Robert Lewandowski are closest to this group.
Joao Cancelo tends to keep a close eye on Lamine Yamal and the rest of the group of youngsters, although his primary clique consists of the Portuguese-speaking contingent, with Joao Felix, Vitor Roque and Raphinha. Araujo speaks fluent Portuguese too, and hangs out with the Latin Americans, in particular Raphinha.
After talk of tension between Araujo and Gundogan, fuelled by the Uruguayan’s words, the pair are set to talk out their differences on Friday. Xavi Hernandez will be hoping his squad are ‘more united than ever’ as Roberto put it yesterday when they head into El Clasico on Sunday night. Any hope of having a trophy to play for depends on three points at the Santiago Bernabeu.
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