The very first round of La Liga fixtures after the recent international break will see leaders Barcelona clash with bitter rivals Real Madrid in the always thrilling Clasico fixture.
The Blaugrana giants will take advantage of such a high-profile game in order to pay tribute to a club legend who sadly passed away recently: Johan Cruyff.
The Dutch icon lost his battle with lung cancer on and was pronounced dead on Thursday, leading to tributes pouring in from across the globe for the three-time Ballon d’Or winner.
The Blaugrana, a club where Cruyff enjoyed tremendous success as a player, coach, and later pioneer, announced plans to pay homage to the late legend in Saturday’s highly-anticipated clash with Los Blancos.
As per AS, the Barcelona board members decided that for one day (the weekend clash), the FIFA Club World Cup badge on the club’s jersey will be replaced with a “Gràcies Johan” logo in honor of the Dutchman.
Both sides in El Clasico will also be accompanied by children wearing t-shirts representing Johan’s charity: the Johan Cruyff Foundation.
A 90,000 piece mosaic will also be on display at Camp Nou, whilst a tribute video will be played on the video scoreboard ahead of kick-off.
On the day of #ElClásico, the fans will reveal a mosaic of 90,000 cards with the message 'Gràcies Johan' #FCBlive pic.twitter.com/4udr8EUQGL
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) March 29, 2016
However, club’s spokesperson Josep Vives looked to calm down talks of a stadium renaming or honorary statue, publicly revealing that no further honorary plans were discussed.
“The naming of the stadium after Cruyff wasn't discussed. At the moment we need to do things in a calm and progressive manner. Nothing can be ruled out,” said the Barca official, as per AS.
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