Barcelona's former Chelsea star Christensen 'a bit of a whinger'

Stuart Telford

• 8 Dec 2023 16:18 GMT
• 3 min read

Andreas Christensen has impressed at the heart of Barcelona's defence after joining from Chelsea the summer before last, but his teammates are starting to tire of his hypochondria.

Barca have been ravaged by injury this season, with Gavi ruled out for the rest of the campaign after tearing his cruciate ligament, while Marc-Andre ter Stergen, Inigo Martinez and Marcos Alonso are also currently on the sidelines.

Christensen has started 10 of Barca's 15 La Liga games this season, invariably joined by Jules Kounde at the heart of Xavi's defence, but he has been subbed off in seven of them, and his teammates are reportedly growing tired of his antics.

"They think he's a bit of a whinger," said the Barca Reservat section of Catalunya Radio, as reported by Sport. "In the recent 1-0 win over Atletico Madrid, Xavi was visibly annoyed when he went down with an 'injury' that amounted to nothing.

"In the dressing room they joke that you shouldn't even look at Christensen for fear he'll get injured."

Christensen increasingly absent

Christensen missed 30 games across his six senior seasons with Chelsea due to injury, but has already missed 15 in just a season and a half since his free transfer to Barca.

Christensen's acquisition was a shrewd one for Barcelona in cold financial terms, with the Denmark international now valued at €29.6 million by FootballTransfers' in-house algorithm.

He is not understood to be on the chopping block, although a number of players will be offloaded in January, if not next summer.

Ansu Fati has no future at the cub having been farmed out on loan to Brighton this season, while Barca hope to raise significant funds from the sales of second-choice wingers Raphinha and Ferran Torres.

Sergi Roberto and Alonso are among those surplus to requirements, and the former in particular has been attracting interest from Lionel Messi's Inter Miami.