European qualifiers by the numbers
Ten European teams are through to the Qatar 2022 World Cup and a further ten go into the playoffs. Let’s check up how the Barça players fared:
Five Barça countries
Spain, France, Denmark, Holland and Germany all made it safely through and have Barça players in all their ranks. The other confirmed finalists are Belgium, Croatia, England, Switzerland and Serbia.
13 Barça players
Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba, Pedri, Eric Garcia and Gavi (Spain), Frenkie de Jong, Memphis and Luuk de Jong (Holland), Ter Stegen (Germany), Lenglet and Dembélé (France), Braithwaite (Denmark) and Demir (Austria) all appeared in games.
Sergi Roberto, Ansu Fati and Umtiti have also been capped in the past but did not feature this time round.
Memphis, top for goals and assists
The Barça striker netted 12 times in 10 games, matched with Harry Kane of England.
Lewandowski, Mitrovic and Zahavi were next with eight each.
Memphis also topped the list for assists, six, alongside Tadic and Goretzka. Jordi Alba was next with four assists.
17 Barça goals
Memphis (12), Luuk de Jong (3), Martin Braithwaite (1), Ousmane Dembélé (1) all found the net, while the assist stats were Memphis (6), Alba (4) and Pedri and Braithwaite (1).
Memphis and Frenkie de Jong, most used
Memphis played the most minutes of the Barça representatives (899), followed by team-mate Frenkie de Jong (807), and then Sergio Busquets (445) and Eric Garcia (417).
Fourth time for Busquets
If selected, Sergio Busquets will be representing Spain at the World Cup for the fourth time, as did Barça’s Xavi Hernández, Andrés Iniesta and Andoni Zubizarreta in the past (Sergio Ramos and Iker Casillas are the only others). For other countries, Samuel Eto'o, Thierry Henry and Diego Maradona also played at four finals.
Busquets has played 13 games at the World Cup, and with just four more would mean he'd match the Spanish record of 17 shared by Sergio Ramos and Iker Casillas.
Always assuming they are selected for the squad, Pedri, Ansu Fati, Eric García and Gavi could all be appearing at the World Cup for the first time.
After Holland failed to qualify in 2018, it would also be a new experience for Frenkie De Jong (Memphis went to Brazil 2014), and also for Clement Lenglet, who didn’t make his debut for France until 2019, a year after Les Bleus had lifted the trophy in Moscow.
Gavi: Eyes on Qatar
After breaking all kinds of records for debuting so young for Spain, the midfielder will now be hoping to have a great season under Xavi Hernández and become the youngest player ever to feature for the country at the finals, a record currently held by another Barça man, Cesc Fàbregas, now of Monaco. He was 19 when he went to Germany 2006, but Gavi is a year younger.
