Former Barcelona full-back Junior Firpo has detailed to pressures of playing in Catalonia, taking aim at former boss Ronald Koeman.
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- Signed in 2019, never cracked first team
- Received threats after disappointing debut
- Criticised Koeman for management style
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WHAT HAPPENED?
Firpo arrived in Catalunya as an apparent back-up to Jordi Alba. However, he never found his footing for Barca, struggling for minutes, and experiencing difficulties on and off the pitch during a turbulent two-year spell. Firpo detailed the difficulties of playing for one of Europe's biggest clubs in an interview with .
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WHAT FIRPO SAID ABOUT HIS FIRST START
The full-back admitted his Barca career got off to a poor start, when he was removed from the game at half-time of his full debut: "Starting like this, with a mistake in my first game as a starter… and on top of that the coach took me off at half-time. That makes you start off on a very bad foot and with criticism. As much as I didn't try to read them, nowadays everything reaches you, especially with social networks. After that game I had thousands of comments and insults, thousands of private messages and threats."
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WHAT HE SAID ABOUT WHY HE DIDN'T LEAVE THE CLUB
After his first season, Firpo had a good option to go to Inter, but spurned it due to his newborn son's health problems: "My second child was born with lung problems and I made the decision to stay in Barcelona. The medical services were very good and I did not want to make a move between countries after such a complicated time entering and leaving the hospital.
"I slept in the hospital, I went to train and returned to the hospital. My son Jasson was in the ICU and only one of my wife and I could go visit him for about 5 or 10 minutes two or three times a day."
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WHAT HE SAID ABOUT RONALD KOEMAN
After agreeing to stay at the club, Firpo clashed with new boss Koeman, who forced him out of the side: "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."