‘From the Beginning’—Barcelona Summer Signing Hits Back at Uncertain Future
A significant twist regarding Roony Bardghji’s future with Barcelona’s B team emerged this week, casting a shadow of doubt over the young Swede’s immediate prospects at Camp Nou.
Barcelona landed young Swedish gem Roony Bardghji in the summer, but his path to the first team is anything but clear.
Bardghji’s First-Team Ambition Amidst Registration Woes
Roony Bardghji remains adamant that he will be allowed to play for Barcelona’s first team this season, a commitment he claims was part of the original plan, despite considerable doubts as to how that promise will be fulfilled. This situation mirrors a recurring theme for the Catalan giants, who have faced annual struggles with player registrations.
In what has become an unwanted annual tradition, Barcelona spent much of the summer fretting not over which players to buy, but how they would be able to ensure those new signings were actually allowed to play for the club.
After some typical creative accounting and an ugly public spat with club captain Marc-André ter Stegen, the Catalan giants found room within the squad’s strict salary limits to register both Marcus Rashford and Joan García. Eventually, space was made for Gerard Martín and Wojciech Szczeşny, yet the future of Roony Bardghji is still mired in uncertainty.
The €2 Million Enigma
The €2 million ($2.4 million) recruit from FC Copenhagen still hasn’t been registered with the first team. There was an expectation that the 19-year-old would be included in the squad for Barcelona Atlétic, the club’s B team, which was relegated to the fourth tier of Spanish soccer last season. However, the club announced their roster for the 2025–26 campaign on Thursday without Roony included.
In fact, an official statement claimed that the teenager would “be in the first-team dynamic” and wear No. 21. Yet, at the time of writing, Roony remains absent from La Liga’s official squad list and is therefore ineligible to play in Spain’s top flight. While Hansi Flick did include the summer recruit in Barcelona’s Champions League squad, he would still have to be registered by the club domestically before competing in Europe.
Bardghji’s Firm Stance: “Not a B Team Player”
Roony, for his part, is adamant that he will play for the senior side this season. “I don’t think I would have signed for Barcelona if it was about playing for the youth team,” he told reporters after being called up for Sweden’s U21s. “I’ve played over 100 games for an A team and I wouldn’t have accepted going to a B team. That’s something they made up. It’s not true.”
What is true is that Barcelona are running out of ways to legally get Roony on the pitch. After his surprise absence from the B team squad list, it appears as though the board will have to personally endorse his arrival by putting their own wealth at risk. This was the approach used to force through Rashford’s inclusion for the first game of the league season.
“From the beginning, both the club and I knew the plan was to be in the first team,” Roony shrugged. “Of everything that’s been said, none of it is true. It hasn’t affected me because they’ve had problems registering players in the past.”
This ongoing saga highlights Barcelona’s persistent financial and administrative challenges, which continue to impact player integration despite ambitious summer signings.
