In this season of hot summer and passionate football, the European Cup and the Copa America started almost at the same time, and FC Barcelona seemed to have been hit in the head by a big joke by fate, or rather, by the "unexpected gift package" of international competitions.
Imagine that if the club has an "injured player lottery", then Barcelona must have won the jackpot and consolation prize recently, but this prize is a real "pain" and "absence".
Having said that, our little prince Pedri is about to show his strength on the stage of the European Cup, in the 1/4 match with the German team, only 7 minutes into the opening game, the German team's Toni Kroos rushed directly forward, fiercely hooked his foot to bring down Pedri, this foul caused Pedri to fall to the ground in pain and clutched his knees.
Before the summer of 2021, Pedri had barely been injured. But after playing 73 games in the 2020-21 season, his body seems to have opened the "door to injury". According to statistics, Pedri has suffered nine different types of injuries in the past three seasons, with a cumulative injury time of up to 85 games.
In the last two years or so, he has been out of action for 335 days due to injury, missed 60 games for the national team and club, and spent almost one year recuperating from injury.
After the game, he suffered a second-degree sprain on the inside of his left knee, which caused him to sit directly in the VIP box of the spectator seat, with at least a month and a half of "luxury vacation package".
After the game, it was confirmed that the muscle was torn, and he said goodbye to the journey of the Copa America with regret, leaving behind a string of sighs from the fans and a little Jiujiu who was silently calculating in the heart of the club's financial manager.
Barcelona lost troops for two days in a row! Pedri retired from the European Cup yesterday and the Copa America in Araujo today, and both of them hid their faces in pain and cried on the field...
This is good, the Barcelona management estimates that while feeling sorry for their children, they are secretly happy - why? Because according to the well-informed guys at "World Sports", according to FIFA's "club protection plan", as long as a player is injured in an international event and is absent for more than 28 days, hey, Barcelona can receive a lot of "consolation money" from FIFA.
This is simply a magical operation of "making money even if you are injured", and people can't help but sigh that the rules of the football circle are sometimes more exciting than the game itself.
Imagine that in Barcelona's financial office, several accountants are smiling from ear to ear at the calculator, thinking in their hearts: "Pedri is at least a month and a half, and Araujo is not short of money, what a sum of money this must be!" "They may have made a small bet privately to guess how much oil and water they would get this time.
After all, up to €7.5 million can be paid to clubs under the FIFA Club Protection Scheme, up to €20,548 per day, for up to 365 consecutive days. Get a year! This is simply a "long-term meal ticket" for the club.
Therefore, Barcelona can apply for compensation for Pedri's injury from August 2 and continue to apply to FIFA for Araujo's injury a day later. The two add up to 41,000 euros a day.
But, then again, it's a good amount of money, but who wants to see their players get hurt? Barcelona's coaching staff and management are probably happy and worried, happy that with this compensation, they can be more comfortable in the transfer market; The concern is naturally the loss of the integrity of the squad, especially young and promising players like Pedri and Araujo, whose absence is undoubtedly a major blow to the team's strength.
But life has to be a little fun, doesn't it? As a result, Barcelona fans began to play memes on the Internet, and some people joked: "Pedri and Araujo are using practical actions to generate income for the club, which is simply Barcelona's 'cash cow'!" ”
Of course, jokes aside, we all know that the health of the players always comes first. For Barcelona, what they would like to see is that Pedri and Araujo can recover as soon as possible, put on their shirts again and continue to shine on the pitch. After all, the charm of football lies in those moments of sweat and tears, and the fighting spirit of unremitting efforts for victory.
As for the compensation, it should be a small compensation from FIFA to Barcelona. After all, in this world of uncertainty, who knows what surprises or challenges will come around the next corner? And Barcelona, as a club with a long history, has long learned to move forward in the wind and rain and look for opportunities in adversity. This time, they were no exception.