Thiago Alcantara to return to Barcelona?

Thiago Alcantara will officially leave Liverpool when his contract expires at the end of June, and according to AS, Barcelona are interested in bringing the 33-year-old midfield maestro back to his first club in a role of player-assistant to head coach Hansi Flick.

Thiago’s last season at Liverpool can only be described as a torment. He missed the opening six months with a hip injury and returned to action in the 3-1 defeat to Arsenal at the Emirates in early February, and it took him just five minutes to pick up a muscle problem which ruled him out for the remainder of the campaign. Given that he already had an extensive injury record before, it’s quite obvious why the Merseysiders decided against giving him a new contract.

Apparently, Barcelona want an experienced player who can speak both Spanish and German to act as a kind of a link between the head coach and the squad, and Thiago, as a product of their own academy, is their preferred choice for the role, having spent seven years at Bayern Munich. However, they have alternative options as well, namely Javi Martinez who plies his trade in Qatar these days and also used to play for Bayern, and Marc Bartra, another former Barcelona man, who spent two years at Borussia Dortmund and now plays for Real Betis .