Things have reportedly come to a head between Marc Andre ter Stegen and the Barcelona board – but the goalkeeper wouldn’t be the first to have fallen out with the club.
The stories from the Barcelona boardroom have filled thousands of column inches in the Catalan sports dailies, and the gossip gets particularly juicy when relationships break down between the players and board. These things have a tendency to messily play out in the press.
Here are six players who suffered fractious bust-ups with the Barcelona hierarchy.
Marc-Andre Ter Stegen
You don’t need to read between the lines to see that Barcelona are trying to push out their long-serving club captain.
They’ve signed Joan Garcia from Espanyol and could certainly benefit from getting Ter Stegen’s reportedly considerable wages off their books.
The last remaining player from Barcelona’s 2014-15 treble-winning campaign, Ter Stegen has made over 400 appearances for the club and won six league titles. But his days as their No.1 appear numbered.
The saga has hit a particularly awkward turn following Ter Stegen’s latest injury, which diminishes his chances of a summer exit.
A particularly brutal twist is that Ter Stegen is said to have refused to sign his medical report, preventing Barcelona from using 80% of his salary for player registrations, such as Marcus Rashford.
The club has now launched a disciplinary case against him. It’s already pretty ugly, but expect this one to rumble on and on.
Samuel Eto'o
This one is probably as much an example of a player-coach fallout as it is with the board.
The story goes that Pep Guardiola wanted rid of Eto’o in his first summer in charge, only for the Cameroonian to stubbornly refuse to go anywhere.
Eto’o stuck around and played an important role in the 2008-09 treble, only for Guardiola to eventually get his way with Eto’o sold to Inter in 2009 – only for Zlatan Ibrahimovic to arrive in the opposite direction and give him even more of a headache. Careful what you wish for, Pep.
Behind the scenes, there was reportedly tension related to salary demands.
In a 2005 interview with journalist Graham Hunterhe listed “joining Real Madrid” and “winning the Champions League with Real Madrid” as two of his greatest achievements while failing to mention their arch rivals, whom he actually represented at the time.
Eto’o eventually sued the club for money he felt he was owed related to his transfer to Inter.
The matter was resolved amicably(ish) when Eto’o eventually dropped the lawsuit in 2013.
“Barcelona would like to make public their thanks to Samuel Eto’o for his willingness to bring this contentious issue to an end,” Barcelona responded in a statement.
“He was one of the greatest goalscorers in the club’s history.”
Neymar
The Brazilian superstar’s €222million transfer to PSG was the defining moment of Josep Maria Bartomeu’s ill-fated presidency. The club reinvested the record fee disastrously, and the wheels fell off from there.
The former president was not happy with the way Neymar conducted himself during that summer’s short-lived transfer drama.
“His way of doing things was not the best. It was not the behaviour we expect of a Barca player,” Bartomeu said.
“We believed them (Neymar and his advisors) too much.”
“This president is a joke,” Neymar responded in an Instagram comment.
After his departure, Neymar’s camp went through a bitter legal dispute with Barcelona related to a claim of unpaid loyalty bonuses.
Later on, there were rumours of a return to the Camp Nou, but the ongoing court case made that particularly difficult and no move ever materialised.
Ousmane Dembele
Ter Stegen isn’t the first player that Laporta has tried to push out the exit door.
He wanted rid of Dembele midway through the 2021-22 campaign, but the French winger opted to stay put and eventually joined PSG 18 months later.
“We presented him with two proposals and they were good,” the Barcelona president told reporters.
“We are very surprised that he did not accept. The last one was from an English club and he did not want to go, he preferred to stay here for six months.
“It is not good neither for him nor for the club, because his renewal gave us salary margin and we would not have been having to work until the last minute.
“The whole Dembele thing is difficult to understand. Xavi is working and has to think about next season. We think he has an agreement with another club. That’s what his agent has insinuated to us. We will act for the good of the club.”
Luis Suarez
Suarez notched an outrageous tally of 195 goals and 113 assists in just 283 appearances for Barcelona across his six years with the club.
The Uruguayan won four La Liga titles, four Copa del Rey, the only Champions League trophy of his career – all the while breaking Messi and Ronaldo’s Pichichi duopoly.
But when it came to his departure, he felt immensely disrespected by Bartomeu and Ronald Koeman.
“I’m never going to go against Barcelona, they have given me everything and allowed me to get to the elite, but obviously the president (Bartomeu) said everything in the press instead of calling me,” Suarez reflected.
“The moment they wanted Leo (Messi) to stay they called me to use me to convince him, to talk to (Antoine) Griezmann… so why didn’t they call me when they wanted me to leave?
“Or why did the coach not come and tell me that he does not count on me because he wants another type of striker?
“(Ronald) Koeman told me I wasn’t in his plans, then he said ‘If we don’t figure this out by tomorrow, you’re back in my plans and I’m counting on you against Villarreal.
“I saw then that the man had no personality. He was not strong enough to tell me I was not needed. The decision (to sell) came from the board.”
Suarez had the last laugh, firing Atletico Madrid to the La Liga title at his former club’s expense in 2020-21.
Lionel Messi
Where to start?
Messi was absolutely scathing about Bartomeu’s presidency, stating: “There has been no project or anything for a long time”
Barcelona’s all-time top goalscorer was particularly incensed with how the club handled Suarez’s exit.
Paying tribute to his close friend with a statement on social media, he went in two-footed on the Barcelona board.
“You deserved a send-off matching who you are – one of the most important players in the club’s history, achieving important things both as a group and individually.
“Not to get thrown out like you have been. But the truth is at this point nothing surprises me.”
Suarez’s departure came hot off the heels of the infamous ‘burofax’ saga, in which Messi attempted to leave the club after a spectacular fallout with the board.
“The president didn’t want to let me go and then he started to leak things to make me look like the bad guy,” Messi told The sixth.
“Then everything that happened happened, but I am still calm that I did what was right at that moment.
“He (lied) about many things. Honestly, so many, but I prefer not to go into private things that happened — but I can assure you it was many things over several years.”
Reluctant to fight Barcelona in the courts, Messi stuck around for one more year – during which time Bartomeu was ousted.
He gave an emotional farewell press conference in the summer of 2021, but his relationship with Bartomeu’s successor, current president Joan Laporta, is also said to be frosty.
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