Arsenal defender Hector Bellerin has refused to rule out a summer exit from the Emirates, admitting that Champions League football is important to him.
Barcelona have been linked with a move to retrieve their former youth star from north London, with the 22-year-old admitting in an interview with Mundo Deportivo that the interest of a club like the Catalan giants is ‘great’.
“You never know what can happen,” he hedged, “but I have a contract and when I finish my holidays after the Euros I will have to go back there. The truth is that every player of a top level wants to play in the Champions League, especially when I’ve been playing in it for two years.
As a team, we didn’t achieve qualification and it’s something that we want to correct, but as a player, I repeat: it’s an important competition. It’s a great thing to know about the interest of a club like Barca, the club where I grew up. I don’t know anything at the moment. I’m an Arsenal player and we’ll see what happens.”
He also admitted that he had family reasons to want a return to Catalonia, saying: “It’s always been very good in London, my family settled there with me, although now, for family reasons, they have had to return to Barcelona. I have a tougher time now because I’m a family person, I depend on them a lot, and it’ll be a new challenge to be without them.
“I haven’t talked to anyone. I haven’t talked to the club. I know a lot of things are being talked about but as a player, the club haven’t told me anything, there has still not been any contact. A lot can happen this summer.”