Barcelona to play a post-season friendly match in Japan, in contact with Iniesta

Barcelona are set to play a post-season friendly in Japan this summer in order to alleviate the losses of elimination from European competitions to some extent.

The Catalans had travelled to Australia for a post-season friendly last year, where they took on the A-League All Stars team. The tour was seen as a success and helped the club rake in some important revenue as well.

And, they are hoping to repeat that strategy by organising another post-season friendly right after the 2022/23 campaign is over.

Several locations in Asia were under consideration while Australia, too, was an option. However, it seems like the Blaugrana have narrowed down on Japan as the destination for their post-season trip for a friendly match.

Barcelona play their final La Liga match of the season against Celta Vigo on either June 3 or June 4. And the plan is for them to fly out soon after that contest to play a friendly in Japan.

The city where the game will be played has not been locked in on yet, but manager Xavi Hernandez, his staff and the players have already been informed about the impending trip to Japan for one game.

In fact, Barcelona are in contact with club legend Andres Iniesta, who plays for Vissel Kobe in Japan, to help organise and prepare for the friendly that will likely take place in early June.

Barcelona first visited Japan way back in 1990. Since then, they have travelled to the Asian nation on nine more occasions, meaning the upcoming visit will be their 11th.

Meanwhile, apart from the post-season friendly, the report states that Barça could play another friendly as early as next month, during the week of the Copa del Rey final.

Having been eliminated from the competition in the semi-finals by Real Madrid, Barça will have no match that week as there are no La Liga encounters scheduled for that period.

Real Madrid play Osasuna in the finals on May 6 at Estadio de la Cartuja in Sevilla.

And given that they do not have any assignments for that week, Barcelona are considering organising another friendly for that time to help generate revenue.

As for the pre-season camp for the summer, the Catalans will be travelling to the USA like last year, with the tour likely to take place between July 19 to July 30.