{"id":258463,"date":"2025-09-27T10:08:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T10:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/258463\/"},"modified":"2025-09-27T10:08:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T10:08:07","slug":"barcelona-recall-19-year-old-la-masia-gem-from-u-20-world-cup-amid-injury-woes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/258463\/","title":{"rendered":"Barcelona recall 19-year-old La Masia gem from U-20 World Cup amid injury woes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Earlier today, FC Barcelona confirmed a double injury blow as Joan Garcia and Raphinha were both ruled out for the next few weeks due to physical problems.<\/p>\n<p>Garcia, in fact, will be undergoing arthroscopic surgery tomorrow to address a torn meniscus and is expected to be <a href=\"https:\/\/barcauniversal.com\/official-barcelona-star-joan-garcia-to-undergo-surgery-4-6-weeks-recovery\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">out for four to six weeks<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>It leaves Bar\u00e7a in a difficult position, with Wojciech Szczesny as the only established goalkeeper in the squad, with <a href=\"https:\/\/barcauniversal.com\/barcelonas-goalkeeping-options-for-the-upcoming-games-following-joan-garcia-injury\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">little to no experience as far as backups<\/a> from the academy are concerned.<\/p>\n<p>Diego Kochen to return from U-20 World Cup<\/p>\n<p>As a result, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mundodeportivo.com\/futbol\/fc-barcelona\/20250926\/1002539647\/kochen-vuelve-chile-suplente-szczesny-jugara-mundial-sub-20.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Mundo Deportivo<\/a> now reports that Barcelona have recalled 19-year-old Diego Kochen from national team duty with the USA following Garcia\u2019s injury.<\/p>\n<p>Kochen, who has been Barcelona\u2019s third goalkeeper since Marc-Andr\u00e9 ter Stegen\u2019s injury, was already training in Chile with the United States national team to begin the Under-20 World Cup in the coming days.<\/p>\n<p>However, the injury to Garcia has forced his immediate return to Barcelona, meaning he will not take part in the tournament.  <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/fc-barcelona-v-sevilla-fc-la-liga-ea-sports-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Wojciech Szczesny and Diego Kochen, FC Barcelona players\" class=\"wp-image-179807\"  \/>Kochen will be Bar\u00e7a\u2019s No. 2 behind Szczesny. (Photo by Alex Caparros\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>In fact, as per the report, Hansi Flick will have him available this Sunday for the Barcelona vs Real Sociedad match as Szczesny\u2019s backup.<\/p>\n<p>The German coach has great confidence in Kochen and wants him to be the alternative to the Polish goalkeeper, while Garcia remains sidelined. <\/p>\n<p>For training sessions, Flick also wants a stable pair of goalkeepers, which is why Kochen has been recalled to Barcelona immediately. <\/p>\n<p>Negotiations between Barcelona and the United States Soccer Federation were quick and effective, as the American officials and coaches understood the needs of the Catalan club.<\/p>\n<p>While Garcia is injured, and with Marc-Andre ter Stegen also unavailable, Flick is expected to count on Eder Aller as the third-choice goalkeeper. The 18-year-old was already included in the first-team squad against Real Oviedo on Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Earlier today, FC Barcelona confirmed a double injury blow as Joan Garcia and Raphinha were both ruled out&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":258464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1386,4444,1582,276,135810,5727,54921,2961,224,5337,83059],"class_list":{"0":"post-258463","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-barcelona","9":"tag-barcelona-news","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-diego-kochen","13":"tag-fc-barcelona","14":"tag-joan-garcia","15":"tag-la","16":"tag-los-angeles","17":"tag-losangeles","18":"tag-wojciech-szczesny"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115275715053451491","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}