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How his move to Barca came about in the first place remains a mystery to supporters. He had hardly ripped it up in Serie A, and, while he had been part of the Brazil side that reached the final of the 2009 Under-20 World Cup, he was 24 by the time he moved to Camp Nou – in professional football terms, hardly a young prospect.
A clue may come in his fee; Douglas joined Barca for €4 million (£3.5m/$5m) plus €1.5m (£1.3m/$2m) in add-ons. He was a bargain buy to pad out Luis Enrique’s squad.
Douglas’ La Liga debut for Barcelona came against Malaga, and, in a positive sense, he kept a clean sheet in a 0-0 draw. On the other, his personal performance was less than impressive. Reports at the time were unkind, noting Douglas was visibly lacking confidence and had notably negative body language.
Eight games, seven trophies and tears after training - The bizarre Barcelona career of misfit Douglas goal.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from goal.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Three Keys to the Game: Real Betis vs Barcelona
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Photo by DAX Images/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Streaking domestically, and producing magic at the death in the Copa, Barcelona is living on cloud nine and it feels good.
How long will it last? With PSG lurking around the corner it’s a critical time to keep climbing in search of the peak.
Real Betis will be keen to send their opponents back to earth on Sunday when Barcelona visit Andalusia.
Here are some keys to the game. 1. Unity is Strength
As the saying goes
Over the past weeks, Barcelona has been grinding out wins.
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Conspicuous by his absence in the presentation or video was Chelsea s captain at the time and one of their greatest ever players, even though he was an academy graduate. John Terry s face didn t quite fit.
He had been raised at Chelsea prior to the Roman Abramovich era and the Arnesen revolution and therefore was seemingly airbrushed out of the history as part of the old era, which had had its day.
To be fair to Arnesen these were early days. But it jarred over the coming years when Chelsea would boast about their academy, which from 2010-18 won the FA Youth Cup seven times: the one shining star from that academy, the club captain, preceded those times, while the players coming through under the all-new reformed system would invariably be loaned to Vitesse Arnhem and never heard of again.