Former Barcelona defender Junior Firpo has explained that he lost all hope of winning back a useful squad role at Camp Nou, due to his conversations with then manager Ronald Koeman.
Firpo, now 27 and plying his trade at Leeds United, joined the Blaugrana in 2019, when Ernesto Valverde was in charge before Quique Setien took over. Just over a year into his spell, Firpo was dealing with a third manager, as Koeman arrived.
“The two seasons at Barcelona were very different. The first I was disappointed in myself. I really regret not having made better use of it. I didn’t take advantage of it well,” he told Relevo.
“[The second] I played very little. And yet at a much better level than in the first. I think Koeman didn’t know me very well: I was young, I had just come onto the scene, I had been in the elite for two and a half years. He was the first one to tell me to stay, but that didn’t turn into minutes later. I remember one time when Jordi Alba was injured and he put Dest at left back. The minutes he gave me were on the right… I had few of them.”
Firpo is most fondly remembered in Barcelona for a remarkable performance that saw him keep Mbappe quiet for an hour at the Parc des Princes.
“The Mbappe thing was a crazy start. He came from a first game where he scored a hat-trick and that day also started very well [he scored 1-0]. They put me on in the 30th minute and with almost no warm-up, we had to try to even the tie. In training they saw that I was very competitive one on one. And he put the entire field against Mbappe. It went well, probably my best game, although they ended up eliminating us.”
Given his lack of minutes, Firpo asked for explanations, with the likes of Dest starting ahead of him.
“I looked for them at first but Koeman gave me an answer in which he was not being honest: he told me that I was contaminating the group… So I stopped trying. It’s very nice to belong to Barcelona for everything it gives you, but I wanted to play.”
The Dominican went on to air his frustrations that Koeman only seemed to turn to him in moments of desperation.
“I had several games in which I played well, but I didn’t have continuity. Then, a month without playing. In the Copa del Rey we came back against Sevilla at the Camp Nou. Ocampos was playing very well… and they took me out to stop him. I didn’t understand that – at the most difficult moment, I’ll put you on, If the game is going well or I can rotate, I won’t put you on.”
After that season with Koeman, Firpo would leave for Leeds, where they were duly relegated. While few felt that Firpo was cut out for life at Barcelona, Koeman was controversial with a number of players. The likes of Miralem Pjanic and Riqui Puig have complained of his methods in the past too.
