Chaos & controversy – Rashford’s first two weeks inside Barca soap opera

New Barcelona signing Marcus Rashford will make his home debut on Sunday, facing Como in a final friendly before the onset of La Liga.

But it’s not exactly the first appearance in his new city that Rashford would have envisaged.

The game will be played inside Barca’s training ground, with his availability for next weekend’s league opener still not guaranteed.

Life is never dull at FC Barcelona – or ‘Can Barca’ as the club and its surrounding environment is known in Spain.

Even the sleepiest off-season Sunday can suddenly erupt into the latest melodramatic controversy, with rumours, counter-rumours and abrupt U-turns a matter of course.

This summer has been no different, with Rashford’s first fortnight at the club overshadowed by a series of sagas.

The biggest of those, centred on club captain Marc-Andre ter Stegen, looked for a while as though it would even delay Rashford’s league debut.

Ter Stegen is a Barca legend with more than 400 appearances and 17 trophies under his belt. But he has recently sustained several injuries, playing only nine games last season, and the summer signing of Joan Garcia from Espanyol strongly suggests the club is ready to shove their captain aside.

Attempts to sell him, however, were thwarted when the keeper underwent surgery on a back problem – and that also had wider ramifications.

Barca are currently barred by La Liga from registering their new signings, including Rashford and Garcia, because their troubled finances do not meet La Liga’s strict guidelines.

Selling Ter Stegen would have freed up enough salary space to do so, but his surgery made a summer sale impossible. So Barca devised another plan: de-register their captain until January.

Ter Stegen, however, refused to sign the necessary paperwork, reasoning that his injury should only sideline him until November.

Barca reacted furiously, opening disciplinary proceedings against the keeper and stripping him of the captaincy.

Ter Stegen then relented, had the captaincy restored and will spend the next few months as an unregistered player in rehab before – barring poor form or injury to his replacement Garcia – most likely being sold in January.

That should open the door for Rashford and other new signings to be registered (but take nothing for granted until the paperwork is complete), meaning he’ll be available for next Saturday’s league opener against Mallorca.

In an untypical outbreak of cooperation between Barca and La Liga, the club’s first three league games have all been scheduled away from home, providing time to complete the reconstruction of the Nou Camp.

Theoretically.

Barca have spent the past two seasons playing at the city’s Olympic Stadium while their iconic home has undergone a major redevelopment – adding around 10,000 seats, a roof and enhanced corporate facilities – which is costing more than £1bn.

The project has suffered significant delays, with the originally scheduled reopening in December 2024 now long gone.

This weekend’s friendly against Como was then earmarked for the grand opening. But that also proved impossible, so the game was switched to the 6,000-capacity Johan Cruyff Stadium inside the training ground, usually used by the reserve and women’s teams.

The next milestone is the weekend of 13-14 September, when Barca will host Valencia for their delayed home opener in round four of La Liga.

Latest photos from the building site – which is what the Nou Camp really still is – show the lower tiers of seating have been installed and the pitch has been laid, but there’s still a huge amount of work to complete.

Earlier this week, local authorities agreed to grant safety certificates to allow around 27,000 fans inside for the Valencia game – but only if the necessary construction is completed in time. So now it’s a race against the clock with no tickets yet on sale or venue confirmed.

And when will the new-look stadium be fully complete, allowing Rashford and his team-mates to step out in front of more than 100,000 fans? For now, that tricky question is being overlooked.

With all the surrounding noise it can sometimes be forgotten that Barca’s main purpose is to play football – and on the pitch Rashford has made a promising start.

His debut came during the club’s summer tour to Asia, showing explosive flashes during a 3-1 win over Japanese champions Vissel Kobe (a game that, in typical Barca style, was cancelled and then reinstated within days of kick-off following a dispute with the promoter).

Rashford has continued to feature prominently throughout pre-season, scoring his first Barca goal in last Monday’s 5-0 rout of South Korean side Daegu.

His performances during the tour earned high praise, with local media reporting he has impressed his new team-mates with both his technical ability and his physical shape.

And his chances of immediately taking a key role have been enhanced by an injury to striker Robert Lewandowski, leaving Rashford and Ferran Torres to compete for the centre-forward berth.

Rashford filled that position to good effect in the win over Daegu and will almost certainly have more minutes as the striker against Como, giving him the perfect showcase to convince Hansi Flick he should start against Mallorca next weekend.

Lewandowski’s status for the competitive kick-off is uncertain, but Flick has already seen Rashford can make a strong contribution both as a number nine or on the left wing, so he is sure to receive opportunities.