MADRID (AP) — Barcelona has temporarily stripped goalkeeper Marc-André Ter Stegen of the captaincy over his refusal to sign a medical report about his back injury.
The club said Thursday that central defender Ronald Araujo will act as first-team captain until further notice.
“Following the disciplinary proceedings opened against player Marc-André ter Stegen, and until this matter is definitively resolved, the club, by mutual agreement with the sporting direction and the coaching staff, has decided to temporarily withdraw his role as first-team captain,” Barcelona said in a statement.
The club had opened a disciplinary proceeding against the goalkeeper on Tuesday after discrepancies about the recovery time for the lower back surgery that Ter Stegen successfully underwent last week.
Barcelona needed him to sign the injury report so it could be sent to the Spanish league in order to clear some salary-cap space and allow the club to more easily register other players without breaching financial fair play rules.
Ter Stegen said ahead of the surgery that the recovery time would be about three months. The club did not give an official timetable for the recovery process, saying only that the operation was “successful" and that “his recovery will determine when he can return.”
Depending on the length of the recovery process, Barcelona could clear a percentage of Ter Stegen’s salary from its cap, making more room to add other players to the squad.
The league has to evaluate the report before approving the official time of recovery.
The club signed Espanyol goalkeeper Joan García in June. Its other goalkeepers are veteran Wojciech Szczęsny and Iñaki Peña.
Ter Stegen met briefly with Barcelona officials this week, according to Spanish media.
The 33-year-old German goalkeeper missed nearly all of last season because of a ruptured tendon in his knee, and in 2023 he missed about two months because of another back operation. Peña and the 35-year-old Szczęsny started in place of Ter Stegen last season.
Barcelona, the defending Spanish league champion, arrived back in Spain on Tuesday after completing a preseason tour in Asia.
___
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Tales Azzoni, The Associated Press
