Ter Stegen now captain of Barça again after all

German international goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen has given in to the dispute with FC Barcelona and agreed to his medical data being passed on to La Liga. Barça announced that the disciplinary proceedings initiated by the Spanish champions against the keeper had been dropped. In addition, ter Stegen is once again captain of the team with immediate effect.

Just a few hours earlier, the professional had spoken out publicly for the first time in two weeks. The 33-year-old feels misrepresented, as he explained in a detailed Instagram statement. Many things had been said about him and "some of them were completely unfounded", wrote ter Stegen.

He still feels a deep affection for the club, the city and the fans and wants to find a solution together, the goalkeeper said. This solution was not long in coming.

Dispute escalated completely

The row between ter Stegen and Barça had recently escalated. The background to this is that the goalkeeper had apparently refused to give the club permission to forward his injury report to the Liga medical commission. As a result, coach Hansi Flick's club initiated disciplinary proceedings and removed him from his role as captain. Now there has been a turnaround.

Ter Stegen recently underwent another operation on his back. In a social media post afterwards, he spoke of a three-month absence. The club had assumed that ter Stegen would miss four months or longer.

In this case, Barça can use 80 percent of the salary of the absent player to register a new player in accordance with the financial fair play rules applicable in Spain. Interestingly, the player in question is Joan García, who the Catalans signed as their new number one from Espanyol Barcelona for around 25 million euros in the summer.