In just over two weeks’ time, Barcelona take on Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu in the first El Clasico of the season. However, they could do so without their starting goalkeeper, Joan Garcia.
Garcia recently underwent minor surgery on his knee, having picked up an injury in training. He is expected to be out for 4-6 weeks, which would make him a doubt to face Real Madrid. Nevertheless, Barcelona are hoping that he will be available, and interestingly, so is his replacement.
Wojciech Szczesny has deputised for Barcelona during the period of Garcia’s absence, and although he would welcome playing in another Clasico, he admitted to MD that his preference would be for him to remain on the bench.
“I hope they don’t need me because I hope Joan can recover soon and quickly from the injury. I know what my role is this season and for me, my greatest success will be that Joan Garcia has a great and successful season.
“From my side there is no competition, there is no rivalry between us. I just try to support him in the best way I can, but I hope he will come back as soon as possible. That doesn’t mean I’m lazy and don’t want to play. I like to play matches, but I just wish he has a quick return.”
Szczesny does not see Garcia as competition – rather he sees them as being in a similar dynamic to one he had at Juventus with legendary goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon.
“I never compete. Competing is not a good word. They are all good friends of mine and when I played, they supported me, and when they played, I was happy for them. Having Buffon with me… He was my idol as a child, and watching him train daily, how he behaved on the pitch, how he behaved off the pitch, how he talked to his teammates, was a great learning experience for me. And he was probably the one from whom I learned the most. There was no competition with him and we supported each other.
“I feel that I have an obligation to reciprocate Joan. He probably won’t be able to learn as much from me as I can from Gigi, but the process is pretty similar.”
Recently, Szczesny revealed that he soon sees Garcia as being the best goalkeeper in the world, and he has now explained why.
“He has practically everything. I don’t want to speak too highly of him because he still has a lot of work ahead of him, but, from a physical point of view, he is already among the best in the world. Of course, then you have to be in the right place in his head to be focused on every game, every three days. That’s a new experience for him because it’s much easier to play Saturday to Saturday.
“Mentality is a different skill: concentrate every three days and play 60 games at the highest level, but Joan is smart, he’s very calm, so I’m sure he’ll make it and have a fantastic season. And I’ll make sure he’s even calmer because I think in this role under great pressure, calmness is one of the most important qualities for a goalkeeper.”
