Home Cycling Barcelona’s João Cancelo determined to achieve four-nation feat

Barcelona’s João Cancelo determined to achieve four-nation feat

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Barcelona defender João Cancelo is aiming to become the first player this century to win four of Europe’s top five leagues this weekend by beating Real Madrid to clinch the LaLiga title.

Cancelo, 31, has won the Premier League, Serie A and the Bundesliga in his career — as well as Portugal‘s Primeira Liga — but is missing the LaLiga and Ligue 1 championships.

He is one of several players, along with Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Arjen Robben and Arturo Vidal, to have won three of what are recognised as Europe’s five biggest leagues; no one this century has won four of them.

“Unfortunately, I didn’t achieve it when I was here last time,” Cancelo, who joined Barça for a second spell on loan from Al Hilal in January, told ESPN’s Andre Linares.

“I hope this season I can win a long-awaited LaLiga title and add that next trophy to the cabinet.”

Barça are 11 points clear of Madrid at the top of the table and, with just four games to go, only need a point from Sunday’s Clásico at Spotify Camp Nou to wrap up back-to-back league trophies.

However, Cancelo says the Catalan side will be going all out for the win, even knowing one point would be enough.

“There is no culture of drawing here,” he added. “We always go out to win the game and that is what we will do on Sunday.

“The Clásico is a huge game, for us and Madrid. It’s a beautiful rivalry that fans enjoy watching. We want three points this weekend and to wrap up the title.”

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Cancelo started his career with Benfica, where he won the Portuguese league in 2014. He later won the Italian title with Juventus in 2019 before going on to win three Premier Leagues with Manchester City.

A German championship followed during a loan spell at Bayern Munich in 2023, but he missed out on the LaLiga title during his first stint with Barcelona the following season.

However, he returned to the club again in January on a loan deal until the summer and now has the chance to add the Spanish league to those he has already won elsewhere.

ESPN Global Research contributed to this report.

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