Jordi Alba confirms Barcelona departure after 11 years and ‘fulfilling what I always dreamed of’
Barcelona defender Jordi Alba has confirmed he will leave the club after 11 seasons at Camp Nou.
On Wednesday morning it broke that Alba would be leaving the club, which just a few hours later has been confirmed by the player and the club.
Alba left the club as a youth player, passing through Gimnastic de Tarragona, Cornella, and then Valencia, before joining Barcelona in the summer of 2012.
He has 17 trophies, including 6 La Liga titles, a Champions League and 5 Copa del Rey titles, across his 11 years at the club. During his time he racked up 458 appearances, 29 goals and 99 assists – totals he can add to against Celta Vigo and Real Mallorca before the end of the season.
Alba thanked his family for their support, and the fans, club, presidents, players and club staff for allowing him to fulfil his childhood dream of playing for his team, Barcelona.
In a statement, Barcelona confirmed his exit and thanked him for his ever-positive and friendly relationship with every member of the Barcelona family. While at times controversial on the pitch, he is well-liked by many within the club.
Alba’s contract will be mutually terminated with the club, with some reports saying that he will forego up to half of the salary he was due in that time. With the Blaugrana trying to cut down their salary bill, this is a major step towards doing so.
Like Sergio Busquets, he will say goodbye to Camp Nou for the final time as a player on Sunday against Mallorca. The two will go down as two of the best ever, perhaps the best, in their positions in Barcelona history. Alba, aged 34, has been a constant over the last decade, at times unstoppable – especially when combining with Lionel Messi.
OFFICIAL: Jordi Alba leaves Barca at the end of the season
Jordi Alba will cease to be an FC Barcelona first-team player at the end of the 2022-2023 season. The player from L'Hospitalet, who had become much less important with the arrival of Xavi Hernandez to the bench, has made the decision not to continue wearing the FC Barcelona shirt and to look for a new adventure away from Camp Nou.
Jordi Alba will thus leave Barça after eleven seasons in the first team. The left-back arrived in the 2012-2013 season from Valencia and did not need any adaptation to become the undisputed starter for more than a decade. Captain and key player in the most important successes in the club's recent history, such as Luis Enrique's treble. Now club and player will have to resolve the remaining season left on his contract.
As Busquets did in his day, it was Jordi Alba himself who decided to announce his departure with an emotional video posted on his Instagram account. He reviewed his best moments as a Barça player.
With the departure of Alba and Sergio Busquets, FC Barcelona has lost two of the representatives of a golden era in Barça's history. Leo Messi's diagonal balls for the Hospitalet native's low crosses behind will always be remembered.
With the emergence of Alejandro Balde in the Barça first team and the passage of time, Jordi Alba had ceased to be a regular at left-back this season. He assumed his role well in recent months, but has decided to step aside a t the end of the campaign
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