6 former Barcelona players we can’t believe are still playing in 2024
Barcelona have gone through a lot of players over the past two decades – some of them great, others less so. And there are a few who pulled on a Blaugrana kit that you might be surprised are still playing in 2024.
Some of the players on this list are Barcelona legends whose careers have gone on and on while others made just a handful of appearances for Barca before leaving for nomadic football journeys.
Here are six former Barcelona men – not including Lionel Messi, Sergio Busquets or Luis Suarez – that we can’t believe are still going now.
Romario
It’s the maddest sh*t of 2024 that you’re probably unaware of – the 58-year-old Romario is back playing professional football.
Romario won the 1994 World Cup with Brazil during a player career that originally spanned three decades and saw him score almost 700 goals and turn out for the likes of PSV Eindhoven, Barcelona and Valencia.
He hung up his boots in November 2009 and would go on to be elected senator for Rio De Janeiro in 2014.
But, in April 2024, the great striker confirmed on social media that he had registered as a play for America-RJ, the Rio de Janeiro second-division side where he serves as club president.
Driven by the desire to play alongside his 30-year-old son Romarinho, the World Cup winner was an unused substitute in a 2-0 against Petropolis – which is as close as he’s come to the action so far.
Pepe Reina
Forty-two years old and Reina isn’t the oldest active player on this list. The game’s gone.
The former Spain international has just returned to Italy for another spell, standing between the sticks for Cesc Fabregas’ newly-promoted Como.
He’s played every minute of their 2024-25 campaign so far.
Arturo Vidal
Part of Chile’s back-to-back Copa America-winning golden generation, Vidal represented Juventus, Bayern and Inter as well as Barcelona during his peak years in Europe.
He won the Scudetto with Antonio Conte’s Inter after leaving Barca in 2020 before returning to South America and signing for Brazilian giants Flamengo two years later – and winning the Copa Libertadores.
Earlier this year, aged 37, he returned to boyhood club Colo-Colo in one of football’s more romantic transfers.
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Cristian Tello
Rejoining Barcelona from Espanyol in his youth and breaking through to the first team after a successful spell at Barcelona B, Tello scored on his Champions League debut in a 7-1 thrashing of Bayer Leverkusen in 2012.
But Tello failed to become a first-team starter, with Barcelona boasting their iconic Messi-Suarez-Neymar front three and giving him virtually no chance.
Following loans to Porto and Fiorentina, he left to sign for Real Betis in 2017 in a €4million deal.
Now 33, the forward is playing in Saudi Arabia for Al-Orobah.
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Martin Caceres
Caceres played 23 times for Barcelona in Pep Guardiola’s first season as boss before going on to have a really odd career, going from Juventus to a selection of other clubs and almost always back to Juventus again.
After a short spell back in Spain with Levante, Caceres moved to MLS in 2022, where he’s playing for LA Galaxy alongside Maya Yoshida and Riqui Puig.
Martin Braithwaite
Braithwaite is one of the most interesting men in football. The ex-Middlesbrough and Barcelona forward, gazillionaire and potential future owner of Espanyol has recently signed for Gremio. Scored twice on his league debut as well.
Braithwaite’s new team a firmly midtable in the Brasileirao as things stand, but there’s every chance the former Denmark international gets bored and decides to bankroll his new club to success.