To mark the Chinese New Year, Barcelona will have some of its players wearing jerseys with their names written in Chinese when it takes on Real Madrid on Wednesday. The Clasico clash is the first of a two-legged Copa del Rey semi-final tie.
This year, Tuesday, 5 February, marked the first day of the Chinese New Year. As a result, it initiated the Year of the Pig.
Earlier, Barcelona released a video which captured the club's Chinese New Year message. The video featured skipper Leo Messi, Gerard Piqué, Marc-André ter Stegen and Samuel Umtiti, as well as Kheira Hamraoui, of the Barcelona Women team, a youth player and a Chinese child from the club's academy La Masia.
Barça players' wishes for a happy #ChineseNewYear! pic.twitter.com/sGFqDeUC9o
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) February 5, 2019
Excerpts from a statement by the club read as follow: "FC Barcelona players will wear some unique shirts in this Wednesday's game against Real Madrid.
"To commemorate the Chinese New Year, which is being celebrated this week, the shirts will have player names with Chinese characters just below the regular names, the first time that the Club has added new characters on the back of the shirt.
"Also known as the Spring Festival, this traditional festival is the most important of the year in the Chinese calendar, which in 2019 marks the Year of the Pig.
"This year is also an important one for the strategy of establishment of Barça in China, which will experience its most important moment next summer when the first team will visit China and Japan on their preseason tour."
