Like João Felix, João Cancelo was recruited by FC Barcelona in the final hours of the summer transfer window. Plagued by doubt after two controversial stints at Manchester City and Bayern Munich, the right-back will try to get back on track in Catalonia. Questioned, like Joao Felix, after Portugal’s defeat this Monday against Luxembourg (9-0) by the Catalan media Sportthe 29-year-old returned to his arrival at Barça: “It’s a very young team, I already knew some of them like Ferran or Gündogan. They all made me feel very welcome, they are spectacular guys. We can only achieve great things if we are a great group.” Asked subsequently about his personal goals, the former Valencia player also showed all his ambition: “I will do everything to explode at Barça. I will try to show my football, my quality, but always with the help of the team, because I need it and I think we have a lot of quality in the group. I hope it will be a great season. Whether in Montjuïc or elsewhere, I always want to play in the Barça jersey and show the fans and those who believed in me how difficult it was to come to Barça. I want to achieve great things with this club because it’s where I always dreamed of being. It’s a dream club, all my friends know it: all my idols played for Barça.»
On a collective level, Joao Cancelo also sees things big. While he has enjoyed enormous success on a collective level in the north of England and Bavaria, the Benfica Lisbon-trained player also wants to fill his silverware at Barcelona and one trophy obsesses him: the Champions League: “It is true that in recent years Barça has not performed very well in Europe, but it is a very big club. We will try to ensure that Barça returns to the level it has always had in the Champions League. At the moment, there are teams who are more favorites than us. But we have a very good team and we can achieve great things. The team is young, but it has a lot of quality.” So many beautiful words that make you want to see him in action this weekend.
