New signing Lucas Digne gave his first press conference as an FC Barcelona on Thursday, saying that “it is a huge honour to play for the best the club in the world. This is the start of a big adventure … I will meet club’s expectations of me. This is the perfect place to stay for a very long time. It’s an enormous project and I am hoping to improve as much as I can to reach the peak of my possibilities.”
He explained that he was first informed that Roberto Fernandez was interested in his services early on at Euro 2016. The FCB technical secretary, who was also attending the event, expanded by saying that “we decided on him because we think he’ll be quick to adapt to the team and will be a good player for us.”
Vice-president Jordi Mestre thanked Digne for making such an effort to come “after having on operation on his fractured nose and having his summer vacation interrupted.”
Fit for the Barça style
Digne will be sharing a dressing room with fellow Frenchmen Mathieu and Umtiti. The latter, who is due to be officially presented on Friday, has played alongside Digne at youth and full international level, so the new signing admits that “at first I’ll share the most affinity with Umtiti but I plan to learn Spanish quickly, which will help me to integrate more.”
As for the way he plays, although he’s essentially a full-back “I play deep and go up into attack a lot. But I am aware that modern day full-backs have to know how to defend. I think mine is the kind of style that fits with Barça.”
