FCBARCELONA.CAT

19.11.2009 11:55

Eleven players off to South Africa

Jesús Carrillo

The 32 teams who will be featuring in South Africa next summer were finalised ob Wednesday night and there will be 11 Barca players in the tournament representing Spain, France, Brazil, Mexico, Ivory Coast and Argentina.

Of the 11, Titi Henry will be playing in his fourth finals, having represented France in the tournaments in France, Japan and South Korea and Germany and will be setting a record for a French player.

For Puyol, Xavi and Márquez it'll be their third World Cup, the second for Messi, Iniesta, Touré Yaya and Éric Abidal and the first for Dani Alves, Sergio Busquets and Gerard Piqué.

Home grown players

La Masia is going to be well represented at the tournament with six Barca players (Messi, Iniesta, Puyol, Piqué, Xavi Hernández and Sergio Busquets), and players such as Cesc, Reina and Giovani dos Santos, who also learnt their game at the club.

Record in France 98

The 1998 World Cup in France saw the largest ever number of Barca representatives, when 13 players appeared: Ferrer, Sergi, Nadal, Celades, Amor, Luis Enrique, Abelardo and Pizzi for Spain, Hesp, Reiziger and Bogarde for Holland and Rivaldo and Giovanni for Brazil.

Romário first winner

Romário de Souza Faria was the first Barca player to win a winners medal, in the USA World Cup in 1994 and was followed by his fellow Brazilian Rivaldo who formed part of the 2002 team, although he had by then been released by the club.