La Masia has been Barcelona’s biggest blessing in recent years during the club’s difficult financial situation. However, there has also been instances of the famed academy causing a problem on plenty at the club.
Marc-Andre Ter Stegen is the undisputed number one at Barcelona and has maintained this status for quite some time now. La Masia however threw the club a problem to handle by producing two exceptional goalkeepers of a similar age at the same time.
Inaki Pena and Arnau Tenas are both very talented and it became very clear early on that only one of the two had a future at Barcelona. The role to play Ter Stegen’s deputy could have only one candidate and the club needed to make a decision.
Barcelona decided to persist with Pena which left Tenas in limbo. Ultimately, the young Spanish shot-stopper left the club on a free transfer last season upon the expiry of his contract and joined PSG and Luis Enrique.
At Parc des Princes, Tenas quickly displaced Keylor Navas to the number two spot and is currently the club’s backup to Gianluigi Donnaruma. The 23-year-old Spaniard was most recently seen on international duty for Spain in the Olympic games where he was a hero on their way to the Gold medal, putting in some solid performances including an assist in the final.
Now, as quoted by SPORT, Tenas has opened up on why he decided to leave Barcelona last summer. Here is what he had to say:
“They didn’t send me any renewal offer. They didn’t say anything to me… they told me two weeks before my contract was up that included Ter Stegen and Iñaki Peña, and also the economic situation isn’t good, but that they would renew my contract, and I would sign any contract to stay. I would have gone to play somewhere else (on loan) because at that time I had to leave to play because I had no place in the first team”
For very long, it was reported that Barcelona would start negotiations with Tenas over a new deal but things changed quite suddenly. One can only guess why the club decided not to go ahead with the contract renewal.
Had the club’s financial situation been better, they might have considered offering the €5m-rated 23-year-old a new contract and then sending him out on loan to get regular first-team football. Currently, it does look like Tenas has a higher ceiling than Pena in the game.
Barcelona might have missed a trick by not retaining Tenas but what is done is done. Ter Stegen still has a few years left at the top level and Barcelona does not need to worry about a replacement as of yet. That said, it would be interesting to keep an eye out on the development of the 23-year-old, should the possibility arise to bring him back to the club sometime in the future.
