Barcelona are bringing their stars to South Africa

Mamelodi Sundowns president Patrice Motsepe confirmed that Barcelona will be bringing their first team to take on the Brazilians at the FNB Stadium on 16 May, writes DEAN WORKMAN.

The president confirmed that the game will go ahead on Thursday after Downs initially announced the game last Friday.

He also confirmed that the timing of the game is such so that Barcelona can bring along all their star players such as Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez.

‘This is the year of the 2018 Fifa World Cup. There are so many stakeholders and the national teams of the different countries and the main concern by those different countries were that there are players who are involved in one of the most competitive leagues in the world, and of course, the fatigue and number of games played is a major concern. The main focus of every country is to ensure that they are in as a good of a position as possible.

‘There is going to be a delegation of more than 100 people coming from Barcelona and that includes the most senior people.

‘Are there specific players that are not coming? There is confidentiality around this one but what I can tell you is the first time they came [in 2007], the contract said specifically, Messi cannot come because he had been injured badly.

‘We are also building at Sundowns and when we bring the next team to South Africa, we want to say when Barcelona came, they brought the very best.’

Let’s do this Masandawana! We welcome the Spanish Champions next week! Who’s joining us?
➖#Sundowns #DownsBarca pic.twitter.com/mNLLhwu6ZE

— Mamelodi Sundowns FC (@Masandawana) May 10, 2018