Barcelona signs a new goalkeeper just to squeeze out Ter Stegen?

Barcelona's first signing this summer made the Catalan city excited - goalkeeper Juan Garcia joined from the city's archenemy Espanyol. This signing has another "effect" - it is likely to squeeze out Ter Stegen, who has long been the team's main goalkeeper.

In the past 12 months, the 24-year-old Garcia has attracted the attention of the Premier League (mainly from Arsenal). If he eventually transfers to England, I believe that Espanyol supporters will be happy, because the last time a player transferred directly from Espanyol to Barcelona was still in 1994, and Garcia will not be born in another seven years.

However, it is too tempting to stay in the local area and join the La Liga title led by young stars such as Yamal and Pedri. Sources revealed that the reason why Barcelona signed the player quickly was because his 25 million euro termination clause was "an excellent market opportunity."

Garcia turned off the social media comment function when announcing the transfer due to fears of strong opposition, but the impact of this transfer may be greater inside Barcelona than outside.

Although 33-year-old Ter Stegen is still firmly hoping to stay, the outside world has begun to work together to push him away. Garcia's joining will surely have an impact on Barcelona's goalkeeper lineup, and even if this means that Szczesni and Penia may leave more, Ter Stegen still feels the threat.

Why does Barcelona need a new goalkeeper?

When coach Frick and sporting director Deco talked about Barcelona's needs this summer, there seems to be no obvious place for the starting lineup to be improved immediately. However, sources said they acknowledged that the team was not perfect and that some adjustments would be needed to go to the next level.

At that time, people felt that some positions needed to strengthen lineup depth and competition. Deco said last month that this is the case with the wing position due to excessive reliance on Yamal and Rafinia.

Previously, it was reported that Barcelona's priority for signings was full-backs, and no one expected them to consider other positions first.

Barcelona had known for a long time that sooner or later they needed to strengthen the other two positions. The first is center, Lewandowski will be 37 years old this summer and his contract expires next year. The second is the goalkeeper. The previous sense of urgency to strengthen this position was not strong, but since Ter Stegen was injured in September last year and the defensive loopholes caused the team to suffer heavy losses in the late stage of the Champions League, the goalkeeper position has become a problem. It has been nine years since the debate over the goalkeeper's position. In the summer of 2016, after only two years of the Cup, Ter Stegen told the club that only one could be left between him and Bravo. Barcelona chose Ter Stegen, while Bravo joined Manchester City.

Since then, Jasper Cilesen, Norberto Murara Neto, Halli Masip and, more recently, Penia have all become substitutes for Ter Stegen.

After Ter Stegen was injured, Barcelona invited former Juventus and Arsenal goalkeeper Szczesny to return, and Pena's long-term starting goalkeeper was shattered. Penia started for a while, but was eventually replaced by Szczesny. Sources said Peña was also willing to leave.

Telstegen recovered from a tendon torn injury early and appeared in two irrelevant games at the end of the season, but sources said Barcelona was already thinking that if the right goalkeeper was available, it might be time to invest.

Flick's team conceded 39 goals in 38 La Liga games, the most among the top four teams. And in the Champions League, the importance of a top goalkeeper is obvious.

Barcelona conceded 24 goals in 14 Champions League games, including seven goals in two losses to Inter Milan in the semi-finals. In the first leg, the two sides drew 3-3, and Inter Milan's expected goals were only 0.84. Inter Milan won 4:3 in the second leg, with an expected goal of 2.24, while Barcelona is 2.81. The gap lies in Inter goalkeeper Sommer's save, not Szczesny's save.

There is a slight difference here. Barcelona's defense is often raised very high, and the personal mistakes made by some non-goalkeeper players at inappropriate moments occasionally expose the goalkeeper to danger. Opponents usually have few opportunities to face Barcelona goalkeepers, but once such opportunities arise, their goal rate is often very high.

Details became even more important in the final stage of last season, with sources saying that Barcelona executives believe they can improve the goalkeeper's position based on trends in recent seasons, not just last season. What is special about

Garcia?

Barcelona won the league championship at Espanyol for the second time in three years, but the performance of the home goalkeeper was not ignored by Szczesni.

"I want to praise Garcia," said Szczesni after the game. "I think he is the best goalkeeper in La Liga this season, and his future is bright."

Many people agree with Szczesni's point of view. Judging from most indicators, Garcia is Spain's best goalkeeper and the key to Espanyol's relegation with only two points.

He has a series of extraordinary performances: helping Espanyol defeat Real Madrid 1-0; draw with relegation opponent Leganes 0-0; in the game against Mallorca, he saved two penalty kicks, but unfortunately one of them was awarded a new penalty, and that ball also caused Espanyol to lose that game.

No goalkeeper has more saves than he (145 times), and only two (Athletic Bilbao's Simon and Atletico Madrid's Oblack) have a higher save success rate than his 73.6%. Szczesni had a save rate of 63.6% in 15 games, Peña had a save rate of 65.5% in 16 games, while Ter Stegen had a save rate of 58.3% in 8 games..

Garcia's save sent him finishing the season with an 8.4 GPrv (stop goal rate), setting another personal high. Szczesny's GPrv is 0.23, Penia is -1.00, and Terstegen is -2.56. In his nine seasons as Barcelona's No. 1 goalkeeper, Ter Stegen's GPrv has only once surpassed Garcia's 8.4, which was in the 2022-23 season, with his GPrv of 9.15, and Barcelona won the La Liga title that season, and he also tied the La Liga single season record (26 games).

Garcia's performance in Espanyol's goalkeeper position has led his teammate, former Barcelona player Sergi Gomez, to call him "the best goalkeeper in the world."

"He has traits I've never seen in a top goalkeeper," Gomez said. "I've never seen such a great player: quick responsiveness, courage, strong ball control, strong leadership, and a strong sense of security. Once in training, he saved all 200 shots from his teammates."

This does not mean that Garcia will be successful in Barcelona. Even by goalkeeper's standards, he is a late-achieving player in the top league. He was promoted to Espanyol's No. 1 goalkeeper just over a year ago, only entered the team in the final stages of the season and helped the team return to La Liga. Sources revealed at the time that Arsenal then became interested in him, but he eventually stayed with Espanyol and played all 38 La Liga games in his first top league season.

Therefore, even if he performed well in the Spaniard, people would still doubt whether he had the experience to deal with the challenges of Barcelona. In addition to the increased pressure, keeping goaltending at Barcelona and keeping at Espanyol are almost completely different jobs. Barcelona value the goalkeeper's save quality and concentration more than the number of saves. Last season, Espanyol was shot 197 times by his opponents, only Vallecano (210 times) had more shots than them, while Barcelona had only 112 times, the least among the 20 La Liga teams, which made the cost of making mistakes for Barcelona goalkeepers much greater than that of other team goalkeepers.

In addition, goalkeepers are not the only job of Barcelona goalkeepers, and Barcelona goalkeepers must also have the skills to control the ball and pass the ball. Gomez said that Garcia wouldn't have any problems with this, but it's another new way of playing.

Among the goalkeepers who made more than 10 appearances in La Liga last season, Garcia's pass success rate was 66.9% (709/1059), ranking 14th. Penia (87.6%) and Szczesni (87.5%) ranked first and second respectively. Data shows that this is largely because the type of passes of the Espanyol goalkeeper is different from that of the Barcelona goalkeeper (the chances of the goalkeeper having a big foot are significantly higher than that of the Barcelona goalkeeper), but it also highlights that he has not mastered this type of pass.

However, the most important data is still good. That's why Arsenal tried to take the lead, and why Manchester City, Newcastle United, Aston Villa and Bournemouth all became interested in him. However, none of them acted quickly than Barcelona. After all, Espanyol only added a 25 million euro termination clause when renewing Garcia's contract in 2023, and has never been updated since then.

What does this mean for Ter Stegen?

Barcelona currently has at least four goalkeepers: Garcia, Ter Stegen, Szczesni and Penia. Sources told ESPN they expect Peña to leave, and Szczesny is still expected to renew his contract. Szczesni has not received a renewal offer yet, but sources said he may be waiting for the situation in Terstegen to develop before deciding whether to renew the contract.

Telstegen is currently facing difficulties.

The 33-year-old player encountered a similar situation to Frankie De Jong a few years ago. That summer, Barcelona tried to force De Jong to join Manchester United and launched a strong public opinion offensive. Now, there are rumors that Ter Stegen, as the captain, has a bad influence in the locker room. He is depressed because he did not get back to the starting position immediately after returning from injury, and encourages players not to give a speech on the day Barcelona held up the league trophy in May.

club sources told reporters that they did not have to explain anything about Garcia's signing to Telstegen, just as they did not have to talk to Inigo Martinez when they decided to bring in another central defender.

However, other people familiar with the matter said that Barcelona may take advantage of the upcoming opportunity of the 2026 US-Canada-Mexico World Cup to squeeze out Ter Stegen because he needs to ensure his number of games at the club to continue as the No. 1 goalkeeper of the German national team. Ter Stegen finally got a spot since Neuer withdrew from Germany last year. He got a good start in the UEFA Nations League this month, doing well against Portugal and France, but it will be very difficult to continue to hold the German main goalkeeper if he can't play in the club.

Terstegen has so far insisted that he will not go anywhere.

"I know I'll stay in Barcelona next season," he stressed earlier this month.

sources said he still insisted on this position, so his move to re-speak and detail three important reasons for wanting to stay is completely unnecessary.

Telstegen said that his primary motivation for staying in Barcelona is football. He believes he can still play well as Barcelona's No. 1 goalkeeper after his injury, and there is no better position before the World Cup than here.

The second reason is more personal. After breaking up with his long-term partner, he was having a great time in Barcelona and was close to his two children. He has recently moved into his new home and some degree of stability is crucial to him and his family.

Third, his contract expires in 2028, paying his salary to leave him for free may be beyond Barcelona's endurance. Ter Stegen signed the latest contract with current chairman Juan Laporta in 2023 and agreed to further extend the previous salary extension to ease the club's financial difficulties. Therefore, for the next three seasons, Barcelona still has to pay him a net salary of about 10 million euros a year, and some of the money should have been paid even back to the time during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This creates a complex situation and there is no turning point in the short term. Sources said that clubs in Monaco, Galatasaray and Saudi Arabia are not under the consideration of Ter Stegen, but since Barcelona will not resume training in a month, La Liga will not start in two months, and the transfer window will not be closed until September 1, so any possibility should not be completely ruled out.

Each party has its own expected results, and perhaps someone must make some concessions.