After leaving Camp Nou twice, he finally became Barcelona s best defender at the age of 24

Eric Garcia surprised many people by becoming Barcelona's best defender this season. It was under Hansi Flick that the 24-year-old truly shined at Camp Nou for the first time.

Before Flick arrived, Garcia had been a substitute and sometimes couldn't even make the roster. In the 2023-24 season, he was loaned to Girona and almost left on a permanent transfer several times.

But he is now one of the four players with the most appearances for Barcelona so far this season, and he is also the player with the most tackles for Barcelona. In addition, statistics show that the short passing distance he completed also ranked first in the team, reaching 3625 meters.

His versatile characteristics have also been fully demonstrated. He can do the job well at right-back if needed, but would be even better when paired with Kubasi at centre-back. On October 26, Barcelona will usher in the first national derby of the season at the Bernabeu. This pair is likely to be Flick's first choice in the defense, while Araujo and Christensen will sit on the bench.

La Masia's defensive genius suddenly switched to Manchester City

Eric Garcia was born in Martorell, a small place about 30 minutes north of Barcelona. At the age of 5, he joined the famous La Masia youth academy. Along the way he captained every age group, both because of his outstanding leadership skills and because of his early physical development.

People agree that he is La Masia's best defensive talent. But in 2017, at the age of 16, Eric Garcia decided to switch to Manchester City - to join former Barcelona hero Pep Guardio, which caused an uproar in the Catalan media.

Sources working in Barcelona's youth teams at the time believed that Eric Garcia should be given a clearer path into the first team given his potential.

At that time, the teenager did not even have any future in the Barcelona reserve team. The club also introduced some other young central defenders, but they failed to produce.

Between 2014 and 2017, Barcelona signed Santiago Bueno, a player currently playing for the Premier League Wolves, from the Uruguay Peñarol team, Jorge Cuenca, currently playing for the Premier League Fulham team, from the low-level team Alcorcon, and Senegalese defender Diawandu Diagne from the Belgian team Eupen. Among the three, Cuenca is the only player who has played on behalf of Barcelona's first team, and Diagne currently doesn't even have a ball to play.

Whether from a competitive or economic perspective, Manchester City has provided Garcia with a better stage to showcase himself. He stayed in Manchester for four years, starting with the U18 echelon and being promoted to the first team one year later. He made a total of 35 appearances for the Manchester City first team. His progress has been impeccable and Guardiola sees him as an extremely talented player.

Returned to Camp Nou, but encountered chaos within the Barcelona team

But in the 2020-21 season, which is the third season after Garcia was promoted to the Manchester City first team, the situation has changed - partly due to changes in Barcelona.

Barcelona’s sports guidance department and La Masia decided to try to sign back Eric Garcia through some behind-the-scenes operations. This time, he will be a first-team player.

Eric Garcia is a die-hard Barcelona fan, and he quickly became interested in this invitation. In the last 18 months of his time at Manchester City, he did not participate in any contract extension negotiations, which affected his image in the minds of Manchester City fans. Players who have spent their own money to invest and develop heavily with playing time do not intend to stay, which makes everyone in Manchester City feel very unhappy.

Eric Garcia finally realized his childhood dream and returned to Barcelona. But when he returned to Catalonia after four years away, Barca were in disarray.

After Bartomeu's dramatic resignation, Laporta returned to the club as president. The team led by Ronald Koeman suffered a disastrous defeat to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League quarter-finals and only finished third in the league. Also later that summer, Messi left the club in tears, joining Paris Saint-Germain on a free transfer.

Therefore, Garcia came back in a very difficult situation for the team, and he shouldered huge expectations.

"Barcelona has signed a fantastic player," Guardiola said at a charity event in the summer of 2021. "They just got a captain for the next ten years."

But due to the imbalance of the lineup and the organizational chaos, Eric Garcia did not immediately get the main position. He was often left out of the starting XI under Koeman. The Dutchman was sacked in October of that year and legendary Barcelona midfielder Xavi took over as head coach.

Under Xavi, Eric Garcia initially became particularly important. In March 2022, he participated in the 4-0 away game against Real Madrid, but that season Real Madrid won the league championship with a 13-point advantage, and Barcelona ranked second. Big changes are coming.

In the summer of 2022, the board of directors controlled by Laporta invested 170 million euros in transfer fees to support Harvey. Thanks to their notorious financial "leverage", this transfer fee completely changed the team's lineup.

In the defense, the addition of Conde and Christensen reduced Eric Garcia to a secondary role. He has become a meme among fans on social media. Fans were not satisfied with his performance in the 2021-22 Europa League quarter-final loss to Eintracht Frankfurt, arguing that he should not have been regularly included in the Spanish national team coached by Luis Enrique. His last appearance for the national team was in November 2022. After that, Enrique was dismissed and de la Fuente became the coach of the Spanish national team. He never got the opportunity to play for the country again..

After being loaned out, he broke out and returned to Barcelona to become the backbone of the defense.

Although Xavi urged Eric Garcia to stay in Barcelona and wait for opportunities, he still chose to join Girona on loan, which is also a Catalan team, and played there for the entire 2023-24 season. Girona coach Michel's persistence and his attractive football philosophy were key to convincing Eric Garcia.

Not all players are willing to leave Barcelona, ​​and this is the second time Eric Garcia has left. Leaving Barcelona comes with many risks: What if you never come back? What if you can’t find your confidence elsewhere? But Eric Garcia has a different mindset.

"I feel that I need to prove myself again," he said in an interview in March 2024. "In Barcelona's preseason, I had some doubts about my role, and I have reached the age where I need to guarantee playing time."

He did do it. That season he played 31 times on behalf of Girona and scored 5 goals. He played a vital role in a historic season that saw Girona lead the table early in the campaign and ultimately secure a Champions League spot for the first time. Michel placed a level of trust in him that no head coach he had ever worked with had given him.

"Eric told me that if he is still not needed by Barcelona after the loan period, he will return to Girona," Michel revealed last year, "but I answered him that this will definitely not happen - it turns out that I was right."

It is not that Girona does not want to keep him. In the summer of 2024, they sent an offer to Barcelona to sign Eric Garcia permanently. The defender is unsure of his role under newly appointed Flick and is keen to get the chance, especially if Girona can compete in the Champions League. But before the transfer window closed, Christensen suffered an Achilles tendon injury, and Flick decided to keep Eric Garcia in the Barcelona first team.

Last season, the Germans used Eric Garcia as a rotation player, mainly as a substitute defensive midfielder. Flick was pleased with his attitude, but there was renewed interest from other clubs in the January transfer window, including Girona and Serie A side Como. Eric Garcia is entering the final 18 months of his contract with Barcelona and sporting director Deco is not opposed to selling a player who faces the risk of a free transfer in the next two summer transfer windows.

The turning point came in January in the Champions League against Benfica. Eric Garcia came on as a substitute for Conde in the 74th minute. At that time, Barcelona was 2:4 behind. He scored an equalizer goal and tied the score to 4:4. In the end, with Raphinha's winning goal, Barcelona defeated Benfica. After that victory, Flick knew he couldn't let go of Garcia, who had played a key role, so negotiations to sell him to Como ended immediately.

Eric Garcia has been moving forward since then and has become an indispensable backbone of Barcelona's defense. The club is in talks with his team over a contract extension and Eric Garcia is willing to commit his future to Barcelona in the long term.

"Our plan for Eric is that once we reach an agreement on the salary standard, he will stay," Deco told local media not long ago. "His situation has changed, he is 24 years old, and we are very satisfied with him."

And Garcia himself said that after former captain Inigo Martinez went to Saudi Arabia to pan for gold in the summer, he became "more and more like a leader."