Bojan Krkic is football coordinator at Barcelona and is taking the squad for a summer training camp in Staffordshire
16:16, 01 Jun 2026
Stoke City favourite Bojan, now Barcelona's football coordinator, with Barca's sporting director Deco.
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Stoke City favourite Bojan, now Barcelona's football coordinator, with Barca's sporting director Deco.(Image: Pablo RodriguezQuality Sport Images/Getty Images)
Barcelona have lined up a friendly against either Stoke City or Watford, behind closed doors unfortunately, as part of a pre-season training camp in Staffordshire.
Barca have booked out St George's Park, in Burton, for a week from July 27 although they will be without players who have been on World Cup duty. For context, they have 16 players going to North America, including England's Marcus Rashford and Anthony Gordon and eight in the Spain squad.
The club, for whom Stoke favourite Bojan Krkic is now football coordinator, wants to play a game at the training centre as well as a friendly against Birmingham City at St Andrew's on Friday, July 31 - according to Mundo Deportivo.
Stoke will start their season with a Carabao Cup first round tie on the weekend of August 7-9. The Championship season will start the following weekend, August 14-16. Fixtures will be announced at 12pm on Thursday, June 25. The first round draw will also take place that day, with details still to be confirmed.
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Stoke will announce their pre-season programme soon.
The Potters had a summer friendly against Barcelona back in 1969 and won 3-2 at the Nou Camp thanks to two goals from David Herd and one from Harry Burrows.
Carles Rexach pulled one back just before half-time and Pedro Zabalza made it 3-2 in the second minute of the second half. Barca searched for an equaliser but found Gordon Banks, who had been a doubt to play due to a groin injury, in irresistible form.
That game had been organised as a warm-up for Barca before they took on Slovan Bratislava in the European Cup Winners' Cup final.
Tony Waddington told Mundo Deportivo: "I might have settled for a draw but I would not say we did not deserve to win and it is always significant to beat a team in the class of Barcelona.
"You have to bear in mind that some of our best players (George Eastham, Peter Dobing, John Marsh, Mike Bernard and Alex Elder) and have not been involved because I had to leave the injured in England. That forced me to play several youngsters and we also played some who were not fully fit (Alan Bloor limped off with a calf strain after 27 minutes and Terry Conroy injured his knee ligaments).
"We have made history. My players, when they walked out into that stadium, were astonished and they have commented that you play very good football.
"Barcelona have many top class players but we have a well-organised defence that is very difficult for even them to break down. I do not know much about Slovan Bratislava (Barca's opponents in the final) but I think the Spanish team has enough to win. I just hope this meeting serves them well."
Barcelona went on to lose 3-2 in the final.
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