Joan Garcia is the transformational signing Barcelona desperately needed
It was labelled as the Joan García derby before the game, and it was Joan García that delivered throughout.
If there were any doubts over the Catalan goalkeeper’s character then his return to Espanyol cleared everything – García was Barcelona’s most important player throughout the game, and if it wasn’t for him, then the blaugrana wouldn’t have got the three points. It has been the case several times over the last two months where García has been Barcelona’s standout performer. He was similarly important against Villarreal before the Christmas break, but his value truly stood out at Cornellà-El Prat.
Three key moments drove him to a heroic status amongst the Barcelona faithful: first, it was the almost comical shove of Gerard Martín to block Pere Milla’s strike, perhaps preventing a goalscoring opportunity. Then, it was the cat-like reflexes, showing quickness and agility to stop a Milla header. Finally, he got down after a defensive mishap to prevent Roberto Fernández from rounding him and shooting into an empty net.
Perhaps what stood out the most was his character. García had been the talking point in the build-up to the game. The ex-Espanyol goalkeeper returned to the stadium that he made his name in as a member of their fiercest rivals. The local fans had printed dollar bills with “Joan García rata (rat)” printed on it, made toy rats to throw on the pitch, the club erected a net behind both goals to prevent fans from throwing missiles onto the pitch and chants against him, his family and his ethics were prevalent throughout. The atmosphere couldn’t have been more hostile.
And yet, García seemed to be the calmest man in the stadium, blocking out all the noise for arguably his best performance in the Barcelona net in his short Camp Nou career thus far. He exuded composure when others would’ve crumbled, converting an almost certain defeat to a season-defining win.
Previous years had identified the goalkeeping position as a huge problem for Barça. Marc-André ter Stegen was in decline, Iñaki Peña struggled to provide consistency, while Wojciech Szczęsny served his purpose as a stand-in goalkeeper. A new signing was desperately needed, and in García, Barcelona signed a mammoth figure. Many, namely Arsène Wenger, have spoken about how good goalkeepers add an extra 10-to-15 points-a-season for a team, and are willing to shell out big bucks for it. On the regular, García is doing just that.
With him, there’s a lot more ability and stability in goal, and while Barcelona have been shaky at the back this season, struggling to match the standards set by their offside trap of the last campaign, it’s becoming clear to opposition attackers that beating the defence and high line isn’t the hardest part – beating the goalkeeper is now an incredibly difficult challenge too. In García, Barcelona are getting value for those extra 10-to-15 points, and he’s going to be invaluable in big Champions League moments.
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Beyond the performance, there’s a great irony and coincidence in García’s success in his short Barcelona career so far. Goalkeepers need great character and seemingly, great character in goalkeepers has a sense of betrayal. Go back to 2001 and Gianluigi Buffon, then a 23-year-old star at Parma, made a move to Juventus, who were both forming a fine rivalry towards the end of the 1990s. The move was seen as a great betrayal amongst the Parma faithful and while he returned at the end of his career, the scars were deep at the start of the century.
A decade later, Manuel Neuer, whilst still young, moved from Schalke to Bayern Munich, with whom they had plenty of heat, going on to form a legendary career in the Bavarian net. Even Thibaut Courtois, who became a hero at Atlético Madrid in his loan spell, put aside his rojiblanco history to sign for Real Madrid (via Chelsea) in 2018. While this may be nothing more than mere coincidence, betrayal has proven to be a good sign for some of the great goalkeepers of the modern era and García has already shown signs of following in the trio’s footsteps.
Barcelona are at a point where they can’t afford to make bad signings. Money is limited, with most of it going to the new Camp Nou project. The idea of falling back within the 1:1 rule and within La Liga’s rightful spending limit has gone quiet and it’s often not a case of who they sign next, rather if they can sign anyone at all. Keeping that in mind, money has to be spent wisely.
Since the palanca-summer of 2022 where they sold off key club assets to build a team, they’ve mostly been successful with their incomings, even if not immediately, and early on García is proving to be a fantastic signing at excellent value – triggering a €25 million release clause provided them with a much-needed boost. That he hadn’t yet been called up by the Spanish national squad apparently saved a further €5 million from being added to the release clause.
There was a free run at García. Other top European clubs already had settled goalkeepers and weren’t in need, so it only made sense for Barcelona to act quickly to bring García in, and they did. He’s still only 24 and given the long shelf-life of goalkeepers, García could be the man in net for the next decade, if not more. Barcelona need transformational signings to go with their exceptional locally-produced talent – especially now more than ever before – and the former Espanyol man is just that.
The next steps are quite straightforward, keep building a team that can compete, and a team that can get the best out of García. In recent weeks, Barcelona have got points despite playing nowhere near as well as they could – nine La Liga wins on the bounce as well as one in the Champions League has seen heavy involvement from the goalkeeper.
While individual brilliance is hardly the most sustainable long-term football model, for the time being, it is delivering and is incredibly impressive. Barcelona go to Saudi Arabia to retain their Spanish Super Cup and for García, it’ll be a chance to add the first piece of silverware to what he hopes will be an incredibly fruitful Barça career.
By: Karan Tejwani / @karan_tejwani26
Featured Image: @GabFoligno / Quality Sport Images / Getty Images