Gündoğan, Oriol Romeu, Abde and Sergi Roberto registered for La Liga

The 2023/24 LaLiga season grows ever closer for Barça with the game at Getafe and the players clearly have a prominent role. Football lovers worldwide are generally big fans of jerseys and the numbers their favourite players wear. This is best exemplified by big signings like İlkay Gündoğan.

The German came to Barcelona after winning the lot as Manchester City captain, becoming a key target for Barça in their quest to defend their LaLiga title. Gündoğan could make his competitive debut for the blaugranas at the Coliseum Alfonso Pérez stadium, but despite wearing the number 14 during pre-season games, he has chosen the number 22 for his definitive jersey number, now vacated by Raphinha, who will wear the number 11.

A jersey number with meaning

Normally associated with the number 8 he wore at both Borussia Dortmund and Manchester City, the number 22 has a special meaning for him as he wore it during his spell at Nürnberg, the club where first played professional football.

At Barça, the jersey number has been worn by players such as Éric Abidal, for six seasons, Arturo Vidal, or more recently, Ansu Fati, before he switched to the 10, and most recently by Raphinha as mentioned earlier, who used it during his debut season as Gündoğan is set to do.

Oriol Romeu and Abde get new numbers too

Oriol Romeu and Abde have also been registered in time for the Liga opener. The former, who has just arrived from Girona has impressed in the preseason wearing number 18, and that's the one he'll be donning for the rest of the campaign, the very number that Jordi Alba left vacant at the end of last season.

Ez Abde is back from a loan period at Osasuna, also has a first team place this season, and will be wearing the number 16 shirt that Pedri has abandoned for the number 8 that Sergio Busquets left free.

Captain also cleared

Sergi Roberto, who added another year to his contract in March, has also been registered for what will be his first season as senior captain. He'll be wearing number 20.