Barça starting off Chinese New Year in style

The 12th of February 2021 meant the start of Chinese New Year, also called the Spring Festival, as well as the beginning of the year of the Ox. The festival took place from the 11th until the 17th, however, the celebrations can last up to 15 days.  Traditionally, people travel home from all over the world to be able to spend the festival together with their families. However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, many people were forced to celebrate without their relatives. Nonetheless, FC Barcelona wanted to make sure that their fans know that “the Barça family will always be by their side”.

For this special occasion, the Catalan club did not only produce a nice video in which they stated that “All Journeys Lead Home”, but the players also wore special shirts for their warm-up and team picture, before the game against Alaves. At a first glance, the shirt might not seem extraordinarily different, but fans with a keen eye will have seen that the names of the players on the back of the shirts, are actually written in simplified Chinese. Moreover, the players also posed with a banner for the team photo, that wished Chinese people around the globe a happy Chinese New Year.

The 5-1 win over Alaves was a special match for 2 players in particular: Ousmane Dembele and Lionel Messi. For the French winger it was his 100th game for FC Barcelona, completing a century of matches with 25 goals and 19 assists. In the same game, Lionel Messi wrote another club record to his name. The Argentine equaled Xavi Hernandez’s match tally, as he featured in his 505th (!) game with Barcelona, in the Spanish LaLiga.

It goes without saying that Barça has made Chinese New Year very special with a big win and this one-of-a-kind shirt.