The first team players visit children in hospitals during the festive period

The FC Barcelona men's first team visited hospitalised children in various centre around Catalonia on Monday along with members of the Club's board of directors and representatives and volunteers from the FC Barcelona Foundation. As such, the long standing traditional visit to hospitals was restored after two years in which the Foundation was forced to carry out the visits virtually due to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

The visits are a moment of joy and happiness for the many children who unfortunately find themselves in hospital at this time of the year. It is also, without doubt, a special moment of the year for the players and board directors themselves. 

Prior to the visits the first team had carried out another tradition at this time of year, the open door training session at Spotify Camp Nou which was attended by more than 15,000 fans. The money raised from the session will go towards the Robot Project within the FC Barcelona Children's Emotional Welfare programme. The initiative allows children and adults in hospital, who cannot make the trip to the FC Barcelona facilities, to experience 'Barça' via a robot audio and video connection. 

Robots Pol and Joyce have allowed 16 year old Jan, hospitalised in Vall d'Hebron and 8 year old Noa, in the HM Children's hospital in Barcelona, to have the chance to witness the training session at Spotify Camp Nou from pitch level and have their photograph taken with the players. 

Once the session was over the players, board members and trustees from the FC Barcelona Foundation visited various medical centres in Barcelona to offer their support and to present gifts to those who need it most. The centres visited were as follows: 

• Hospital Sant Joan de Déu (Sergi Roberto, Pedri, Lewandowski, Marcos, Eric and F. De Jong)
• Hospital Vall d’Hebron (Ter Stegen, Dembelé, Memphis, Kessie and Arnau Tenas)
• Hospital de Sant Pau (Jordi Alba and Ansu Fati)
• Hospital de Barcelona (Sergio Busquets)
• Hospital HM Nens de Barcelona (Bellerin and Christensen)
• Hospital Universitari Germans Trias and Pujol (Ferran Torres and Kounde)
• Hospital Parc Taulí de Sabadell (Balde and Gavi)
• Cottolengo Padre Alegre (andñaki Peña and Pablo Torre)
• Casa Ronald McDonald (Araujo and Raphinha)