Barça Hunts for a Mole. So Far, It Has Found a Keypad

FC Barcelona have spent months trying to identify the person who keeps leaking information from inside the club. According to Víctor Malo of Culemanía, Barça deliberately circulated selected stories, followed the trail they left behind, found several clues and made some “radical decisions.” The mole, however, remains unidentified. Apparently, finding €120 million for a striker is easier than finding one employee with a phone.

The latest weapon in Barça’s fight for secrecy is a set of keypad locks installed at the entrances to the dressing rooms at the Ciutat Esportiva. Access controls are also being tightened across the training complex. That may be overdue: last year, a “fake physiotherapist” reportedly managed to enter the premises after bypassing security. Barcelona spent years building a club open to everyone. Only now have they realised that perhaps this should not include the first-team facilities.

The club are particularly frustrated by leaked line-ups and confidential medical details. One notable case reportedly involved the news that Wojciech Szczęsny, rather than Marc-André ter Stegen, was set to start in the Copa del Rey. In recent years Barça have restructured their communications department, reassigned staff and watched several long-serving employees leave. Suspicion has now spread to the medical team, physiotherapists and fitness coaches. The list of suspects is narrowing nicely — it currently includes roughly everyone inside the club.

Deco has even proposed building a hotel at the training ground to give the players greater privacy. They could sleep, eat, train and party without ever leaving the complex. Barcelona still do not know who is leaking the information, but they are moving steadily towards a future in which the mole gets a room of his own.