Barcelona have been going through their final preparations of the 2025/26 La Liga season, with Hansi Flick’s squad stepping up training ahead of their last league outing against Valencia this weekend.
With the Blaugrana already through a successful campaign and nothing left riding on the result, attention inside the camp has shifted toward squad depth, rotation options and assessing emerging talent from within the club’s system.
As is often the case at this stage of the season, the final training sessions have also provided opportunities for younger players to get a taste of senior football intensity.
That was exactly the case again in today’s session, where a fresh face from the club’s development ranks was brought into first-team training.
According to Sport, Joan Anaya was promoted from the reserve setup to train with the Barcelona senior squad, earning a valuable opportunity to work under Flick ahead of the Valencia fixture.
The 21-year-old right-back has been part of La Masia since 2015 and is considered one of the more experienced youth players still developing within the system, given his long-standing presence at the club.
This season, Joan Anaya has been a consistent performer for Barca Atletic under Juliano Belletti, making 19 appearances and contributing four assists from a defensive position.
His progress was briefly interrupted between February and April after suffering a rectus femoris injury in his left leg, which ruled him out for two months during a key stretch of the campaign.
Despite that setback, he returned to action and finished the season strongly, with his development now being closely monitored by the first-team staff as Barcelona continue to blend youth with experience.
He nearly joined the first team training set up last year November but that did not materialise.
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