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MADRID: Barcelona say Marc-Andre ter Stegen will return as first-team captain after announcing on Friday that the goalkeeper had authorized the club to send his medical report to the Spanish league.

The announcement came as Ter Stegen talked of how “especially difficult” the past few months have been, and he criticized suggestions he was to blame for Barcelona’s inability to register new players, insisting that his back surgery and recovery timeline were fully approved by the club.

The disagreement led to the 33-year-old Ter Stegen being stripped of the club’s captaincy on Thursday. But that changed Friday.

“The club announces that the player Marc-Andre ter Stegen has signed the authorization necessary for the club to send La Liga the medical report relating to his surgery,” Barcelona said in a statement. “The disciplinary case has been closed and the player is captain of the first team once again with immediate effect.”

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.

“These past few months have been especially difficult for me, both physically and personally,” Ter Stegen said in a statement on social media. “Like any player, after suffering an injury, my only priority has always been to return to the field as soon as possible, motivated solely by the desire to help the team and do what I love most: compete.”

He added that “completely unfounded” things were said about him in recent weeks, so he felt it was “necessary to express my version of events with respect, but also with clarity.”

“The decision to undergo surgery was made after consulting with medical professionals and was fully approved by the club,” he said. “I publicly announced the estimated recovery period, which was given to me by top medical experts and always in coordination with the club.”

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.”

“At no point could I have thought that my unfortunate situation — having to undergo another operation — was necessary to register other teammates whom I deeply respect and am looking forward to sharing the locker room with for many seasons,” he said. “Any other interpretation seems to me both unfair and inaccurate.”

The club signed Espanyol goalkeeper Joan García in June. Their other goalkeepers are veteran Wojciech Szczęsny and Iñaki Peña.

“Throughout my career, I have always tried to conduct myself with professionalism, respect, and commitment to the crests I’ve represented,” he said. “I have deep affection for FC Barcelona, this city, and its people, who have supported me over so many years. My commitment to these colors remains absolute.”

Ter Stegen 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. They will face Italian club Como in their final preseason match on Sunday in Barcelona. Their league debut is at Mallorca next Saturday.

MANCHESTER, England: Manchester City will embark on a new era this season in their first in 10 years without talisman Kevin De Bruyne as Pep Guardiola looks to make last term’s third-place finish a distant memory and restore his revamped outfit to their former glory.

They face a tough task against champions Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea – all big spenders in the transfer window – but the anticipated return of Ballon d’Or winner Rodri and scoring machine Erling Haaland to top form give reason for optimism.

City were tipped last season to win a record-extending fifth consecutive Premier League title, but a mid-season nose-dive saw them fall well off the pace and miss a top-two spot for the first time since 2016-17.

They finished third behind Liverpool and Arsenal with their worst points total under Guardiola, their nine league losses were more than their two previous seasons combined, they crashed out of the Champions League and League Cup early and their FA Cup final loss to Crystal Palace meant no silverware for the first time in eight years.

Rodri was sidelined for most of the season after suffering a torn anterior cruciate ligament against Arsenal in September. Guardiola’s men showed how much the Spaniard was missed when they went on a woeful run of nine defeats in 12 games across all competitions.

After leading the Premier League in scoring for two successive seasons, Haaland’s 31 goals across all competitions in 2024-25 remarkably constituted a drop in performance, although he still showed his lethal scoring ability in what was considered an off-year for the Norwegian.

He will be keen to prove a point this season and put himself back in the running for the Golden Boot.

Guardiola began his rebuilding last term, splashing out £180 million ($241.72 million) on Omar Marmoush, Abdukodir Khusanov, Nico Gonzalez and Vitor Reis. Marmoush had an almost immediate impact with a 13-minute hat-trick in a 4-0 win over Newcastle United in February.

City’s manager has further galvanized his squad by signing Dutch midfielder Tijjani Reijnders, Wolverhampton Wanderers defender Rayan Ait-Nouri, winger Rayan Cherki and goalkeeper James Trafford in the close season to push City’s spending for 2025 past the £300 million mark.

Ait-Nouri was brought in to reinforce the left-back position, while Reijnders and Cherki were signed in the hope that they could replace De Bruyne’s creative spark in midfield.

Squad positivity

While City boast one of the best strikers in the game in Haaland, the fight to support the 25-year-old runs deep with Marmoush, Phil Foden, Jeremy Doku, Savinho, Oscar Bobb and Cherki all in contention.

Guardiola said that while there is a lot of positivity in the squad, he did not expect this season to be smooth sailing.

“I’m pretty sure it’ll be good, but it won’t be a red carpet season, there’ll always be problems, it’s how you overcome those situations,” the Spaniard said at a sold-out open training session earlier this week.

“The expectation at the beginning of the season is always, let’s go and try to do our best, win the first games, get confidence and move forward. Of course, we want to try and do better than last season, especially with consistency.”

The manager, who is under contract until June 2027, is not setting any targets for the season, saying it is difficult to determine what a successful campaign would be.

“When the (players) give good spirit and fight and run and give their best, sometimes you can do your best and the opponents are just better,” he said. “It depends on ourselves, this is what we have to try to do. We challenge against ourselves, this is the target for the season.”

A cloud continues to hang over the club as they face 115 charges of breaking Premier League financial regulations. City, who have always denied any wrongdoing, were charged with the alleged breaches in February 2023. British media expect a verdict during the October international break.