Joan Garcia set to be first player to swap Espanyol for rivals Barca in 31 years

“No, impossible”. This was Lamine Yamal's response a few days ago about signing for Real Madrid one day. And although rivalries in football are very marked, it is not uncommon for a player to change a shirt for another 'forbidden' one. The case of Joan Garcia is one more, although it has been a long time since an Espanyol player went directly to Barcelona. The last one was the Russian Igor Korneiev in the summer of 1994.

A lot has happened since then. The 'Pericos' fans had almost forgotten what it was like to suffer such a 'betrayal', even though the goalkeeper from Sallent is the fifteenth in history to make such a transfer. In fact, the last moves had been the other way around: three years ago, Martin Braithwaite changed the 'azulgrana' jersey for the blue and white one; and before him, the last move of the century had been made by Roger Garcia in 1999. 

Almost no one at Espanyol is surprised that, given the level he has shown, the goalkeeper with the most saves in La Liga decided to leave this summer for a more ambitious project. In addition to the pain of losing him, not only is there the pain of seeing him in blue and white, but Joan Garcia had continually conveyed (as reported by several Catalan media) that his future would be in the Premier League. The final twist of his decision is what is not understood. 

At the expense of seeing if Barcelona keeps him in the first team or loan him for a season at the expense of resolving the future of Ter Stegen and Szczesny, Joan Garcia will become the third goalkeeper to leave Espanyol for Barca. The first of those 15 players was a goalkeeper: Cristofol Sola i Coll, who in 1930 and after three seasons at Espanyol, signed for Barcelona. The second, more recent and better known, was Urruti in the 1980s.