Jordi Alba speaks out on Barcelona exit after 11 years at the Camp Nou - ‘I’ve always had a clear conscience’
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Published 14/06/2023 at 08:55 GMT
Jordi Alba has spoken revealingly about the circumstances surrounding his departure from Barcelona. The 34-year-old leaves the Camp Nou after a trophy-laden 11 years, which included six La Liga titles and a Champions League victory in 2015. He also spoke about the next move in his career and is not ruling a move to the Premier League, detailing conversations with team-mates who call it "special".
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Jordi Alba has broken his silence after leaving Barcelona amid the club's economic troubles.
Alba is leaving the Camp Nou following 11 years of service after taking the decision to withdraw from his current deal a year early and leave as a free agent.
The Spain captain is the latest high-profile departure from Catalonia this summer, following Gerard Pique’s retirement and Sergio Busquets's exit – the latter linked with a switch to Inter Miami and join Lionel Messi.
In a revealing interview with the Guardian, Alba alluded to how he had arrived at his decision to move on.
He said: “We all know the economic needs but that’s not about one player. I’ve always said the problem isn’t me, I’ve always had a clear conscience. I did the right things; I helped the club at every moment. And they have always helped me.
“In the end people have realised. The club and people know what I’m like. When I talk, it’s true. I can’t control what people say, come out every five or 10 days and say: ‘That’s false.’ The manager decided I had to have less protagonism. I think I’ve been good when I’ve been given the chance to play. That’s what I hold on to. It’s not easy to go from 10 years of playing every game to that. I think I’ve handled it well.
“The club know the efforts I’ve made at certain moments or what I am doing by going now. They gave me the chance to stay another year. It would have been very easy to. It’s my home. But I thought the right thing to do, the just thing, the honest thing, was to step to one side. No one forced me.”
Alba also spoke about making the U-turn from initially announcing his desire to retire at Barcelona in October, before a lack of game time proved a telling role in his change of heart.
"I thought about it carefully and agreed with my family. When I said I wanted to stay that’s how I felt but taking everything into account it’s the right moment to leave. Of course if I’d been playing more minutes, maybe I wouldn’t have reached this point, had those thoughts. I’ve been at this club 18 years; it’s half my life.
“After so many years, having won it all, you have to assimilate that you’re going. But the decision is mine, without anyone telling me what to do. The club, the president; they gave me the chance to choose. I had earned that right.”
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Jordi Alba with Sergio Busquets
Image credit: Getty Images
The 34-year-old is now considering his next move and is not ruling anything out, including a move to the Premier League.
“You see the Premier League, and the atmosphere there. I talk to teammates in the seleccion [Spain national team] who have played there and they say England’s special.
“I always had the idea that ‘one day maybe’. But I was always focused on Barcelona and the Spanish league so I didn’t really think about any other league.
“Of course, but I have to see which teams want me first. And then, well, I’m open to all sorts of proposals, in Europe, outside Europe. Wherever I go, we’ll be fine, but it’s not easy. I want to weigh everything up.”
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