Barcelona became the first club to send 17 players to a World Cup tournament.
With the injury of Jose Gaya (Valencia), the Spanish coach Luis Enrique was forced to call a new defender to take his place, the chosen one was Alejandro Balde. The young Barcelona winger became the 17th Catalan player to fly to Qatar,
Balde joins the Spanish national team along with seven other Spanish players who play for Barça (Jordi Alba, Ansu Fati, Busquets, Pedri, Gavi, Ferrán Torres and Eric Garcia). Ter Stegen (Germany), Andreas Christensen (Denmark), Jules Koundé, Ousmane Dembélé (France), Raphinha (Brazil), Ronald Araujo (Uruguay), Lewandowski (Poland), Frenkie de Jong and Memphis Depay (Netherlands) complete the group.
