All set for a World Cup with strong Barça representation

The World Cup is about to start. The national sides are ready for their first matches en route to a potential World Cup title. This edition is tainted in blaugrana, as Barça past and present are represented by both players and coaches.

Running from 20 November to 18 December, the competition in Qatar comprises 32 national sides, featuring some 17 players from the current Barça squad.

Record number called up

Barça have provided most players at the World Cup from one club. With 17 players, the Club sets a new record after surpassing the 15 called up for Brazil 2014. Since the 2010 World Cup, Barça has provided at least 14 players for each tournament; 14 In South Africa in 2010, 15 in Brazil 2014, 14 in Russia 2018 and now 17 in Qatar 2022.

The 17 players are spread across eight national teams as follows: Eric Garcia, Jordi Alba, Pedri, Gavi, Busquets, Ansu Fati, Ferran Torres for Spain, plus Balde, a late call up after Gayà picked up an injury, Jules Kounde and Ousmane Dembélé with France, Frenkie de Jong and Memphis Depay with the Netherlands, Andreas Christensen with Denmark, Raphinha with Brazil, Araujo with Uruguay, Ter Stegen with Germany and Robert Lewandowski with Poland.

Representation with a Barça past

Barça youth football features heavily at the World Cup, with 15 players who have been through the Club's development programme: Eric Garcia, Jordi Alba, Sergio Busquets, Gavi, Ansu Fati, Balde and Dani Olmo with Spain, Xavi Simons with Netherlands, Leo Messi with Argentina, Take Kubo with Japan, Onana and Honglà with Cameroon, Paik with South Korea, Abde with Morocco, and Araujo with Uruguay.

Furthermore, seven other Barça stars will be there in the form of Leo Messi (Argentina), Alves and Neymar (Brazil), Luuk de Jong (Netherlands), Dest (United States of America), Griezmann (France), Luis Suárez (Uruguay) and Braithwaite (Denmark).

There are also links to the Club on the benches, with four former Barça coaches. Three ex-first team coaches in Luis Enrique (Spain), Van Gaal (Netherlands) and Tata Martino (Mexico), along with the former Under19A coach, Fèlix Sànchez Bas (Qatar).

League leaders until after the World Cup

With the win at El Sadar in the final game before the break, the Club are leading the way in LaLiga, two points ahead of second place. There is a wait until New Year's Eve for the next first team game, but there will be Barça representation almost every day at the World Cup. You can check out the calendar here.