Marcus Rashford: Inside Soap Opera Marking England Forward Arrival at Barcelona

Marcus Rashford has endured a whirlwind introduction to life at FC Barcelona, his initial two weeks in Catalonia filling one whole season with drama.

The England striker, brought in on the wave of high expectations, has yet to play his first home game — and even that is in doubt.

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The 26-year-old will feature this Sunday against Como in a final pre-season match before La Liga, but the match will be played not at lofty Nou Camp, nor at the Olympic Stadium, but at the modest Johan Cruyff Stadium training facility of the club.

The unorthodox backdrop is characteristic of a rollercoaster summer in which stadium delays, fiscal intransigencies, and dressing-room politics have coalesced to produce a prototypical "Can Barca" soap opera.

Barcelona's books are still in the spotlight, with La Liga currently declining to register new arrivals — including Rashford — due to the fact that the club is not able to approve tight wage regulations.

Dreams of unclogging wage space were bruised by a captain and goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen drama whose back surgery thwarted plans to sell him.

When the club attempted de-registering him until January, the Germany international initially refused, prompting disciplinary action and interim removal of the armband before an uneasy truce was agreed.

With Ter Stegen unavailable through injury and not registered, Rashford's competitive bow will hinge on whether or not Barcelona can have their paperwork out the door in advance of next week's opener against Mallorca. For now, no one knows — because, at Barcelona, nothing ever does.

The Nou Camp's £1bn makeover — to add 10,000 extra seats, a new roof, and state-of-the-art corporate facilities — has been left in tatters by significant delays.

The club had originally planned to officially open the revamped stadium on this weekend's friendly, but construction setbacks mean that it will now host the Valencia game in mid-September, if building is wrapped up on time.

Fresh pictures reveal that while lower levels of seating and the pitch are in, much of the stadium remains looking like a building site. Authorities locally have said that they will permit 27,000 fans for the Valencia match, but only if safety conditions are met. Tickets are not yet available for sale, and contingency plans are still in reserve.

The opportunity for Rashford's first proper home debut before a full Nou Camp remains some way off, many years away perhaps, so he has to be satisfied with smaller stages for now.

On the pitch, Rashford's start has also been encouraging. He impressed during the club's preseason tour of Asia, headlining a 3-1 win against Vissel Kobe and scoring his first goal in a 5-0 thrashing of South Korea's Daegu.

A blow to Robert Lewandowski has further enhanced Rashford's chances of starting the season as Barcelona's go-to striker. For the role alongside Ferran Torres, he will lead the line against Como and even Mallorca, with Flick feeling he can thrive both in the center and on the left.

For a player so frequently in the British media glare, Barcelona's turmoil could unexpectedly work in Rashford's favor — the soap opera off the field ensuring, at least for now, that his early performances remain below the radar.

If the soap opera does fizzle out, and the goals begin to flow, the Catalan glare will catch up with him eventually.