FC Barcelona Coach Xavi Will Punish Player For Party Life: Report

FC Barcelona look set to punish one of their first team stars for his love of partying outside of football and amid a disturbing photo he published on social media according to El Nacional.

Pablo Torre arrived at Camp Nou to great excitement among the Barca fanbase and media that covers the club’s activity in 2022.

Given he is also Spanish and a midfielder of the same age, and that the Catalans picked him up for an identical, bargain €5 million ($5.4 million), immediate comparisons were drawn between the 20-year-old and Pedri.

Whereas Pedri made an instant impact under coach Xavi Hernandez’s predecessor Ronald Koeman from the summer of 2019 onwards, Torre has found it much more difficult to enjoy protagonism thanks to his mentioned positional rival’s undisputed place in the first XI plus the emergence of Gavi.

Even when Pedri became injured in February while facing Manchester United in the Europa League, though, Xavi still preferred to pick Franck Kessie.

Towards the end of the season, with the La Liga title wrapped up, Xavi did hand Torre a start against Real Valladolid where he played 63 minutes in a shock 3-1 loss.

Overall, though, the youngster only mustered 138 minutes across the Spanish top flight campaign with eight appearances that were mostly cameos.

According to El Nacional, overlooking Torre is mainly because of Xavi’s disapproval of the player’s partying which has already been reported on before by the same newspaper.

At the weekend, Torre also came under fire from fans of the club by posting a photo of himself, Ferran Torres and Eric Garia at the famous Ushuaia nightclub in Ibiza.

Usually this might not be such a big issue, although certainly not wise. Yet considering he uploaded the picture just 10 minutes after the Barca Atletic reserve team he sometimes helped out last season had just lost an important playoff promotion match to Real Madrid’s Castilla youth outfit, Torre opened himself up to a torrent of abuse.

With Barca needing to offload players to make space on the wage bill, it is now quite probable that Torre is sent out on loan to think about his actions and get his career back on track through producing the type of performances that first attracted attention to him at hometown club Racing Santander.