Bartra makes 100th appearance with Barcelo

Barcelo, March 8: Barcelo defender Marc Bartra has become the 10th footballer among the current Blaugra squad to make his 100th official appearance with the club after coming onto the pitch as a substitute on Sunday against Eibar in week 28 of La Liga, the European champions said on Tuesday.

During the 4-0 away win, coach Luis Enrique made three substitutions at once and one of the players that came on was 25-year-old Bartra, reports Efe.

Currently, seasoned midfielder Andres Iniesta, the current captain, is leading the triple figure list with 580 official games, which is the third highest figure ever for any Barcelo player.

Only former Barcelo players, Xavi Herndez and Carles Puyol played more games, with 767 and 593 caps earned respectively throughout their Catalan club careers.

The next current player to play more than 100 games is the Argentine Lionel Messi, with 517 official matches, followed by the Brazilian Dani Alves, with 379, Sergio Busquets with 371 and Gerard Pique with 344 official caps. Next comes Javier Mascherano, who arrived from Liverpool in 2010-11 and has racked up 269 games. Brazilian fullback Adriano featured in 188 games, Jordi Alba in 145 while Neymar played 127. IANS