Barcelona's Roony Bardghji Suffers Second ACL Tear
Barcelona’s summer plans – and Roony Bardghji’s career trajectory – have been brutally jolted off course.
The Spanish champions confirmed on Tuesday that the 20-year-old forward has torn the ACL in his right knee, an injury that will require surgery in the coming days and rule him out for months. Any prospect of a move before the transfer window shuts on September 1 has vanished on the spot.
From exit talks to operating table
The timing could hardly be harsher.
On Monday, during a training session, Bardghji went down with what medical tests later revealed to be a severe ligament tear. Just days earlier, coach Hansi Flick had told the Sweden international he should look for a new club, with first-team minutes at Barcelona expected to be scarce this season.
According to ESPN, Flick was direct with the youngster: breaking into the starting XI would be extremely difficult. Bardghji accepted that reality and began preparing for a move, with interest already building across Europe and the Premier League among the suitors.
Barcelona, aware of the transfer discussions and keen to avoid exactly this kind of situation, had even taken precautions. The winger was left out of Saturday’s friendlies against Nottingham Forest and Udinese to reduce the risk of injury before a deal could be struck. The danger they tried to dodge found him anyway, in a routine training session.
The club had been ready for talks to accelerate in the final weeks of the window. Instead, negotiations stop here.
A cruel repeat for a 20-year-old
This is not Bardghji’s first battle with this injury. It is the second time he has torn the ACL in his right knee, having suffered the same damage while playing for Copenhagen in 2024.
Barcelona signed him last summer from the Danish club for around €2 million, a low-risk investment in one of Scandinavia’s brightest young attacking talents. In his debut season in Spain he made 28 appearances in all competitions and scored two goals, most of those minutes coming from the bench.
Even that limited role was under threat. The arrivals of Anthony Gordon and Karim Adeyemi this summer were set to push Bardghji further down the pecking order, sharpening the logic behind a transfer. Now, instead of a fresh start, he faces another long rehabilitation.
Season written off
With the window closing on September 1, Barcelona have effectively confirmed that any exit is off the table. The player will undergo surgery shortly and then begin a lengthy recovery programme in the city.
The plan for 2024–25 has flipped: no new club, no fight for minutes elsewhere, just a season spent rebuilding a damaged knee and, once again, a stalled momentum.
For a 20-year-old who had just been told to chase opportunities away from Camp Nou, the question now is no longer “where next?” but “how quickly can he come back – and how much of his potential can he still salvage?”
