CROSSING THE DIVIDE: Five players who’ve played for Espanyol and Barca

Ahead of this Thursday’s Elderbi de Barcelona (9:30pm CAT), here’s a run-through of some of the biggest names to have played for both clubs over the years.

Martin Braithwaite (FC Barcelona 2020-2022, RCD Espanyol 2022-2024)

The Danish international is one of the more recent players to make the jump across the Catalan capital. He firstly joined Barça from CD Leganés in 2020 and scored 10 goals across two seasons. Then, he made the move to RCD Espanyol just before the close of the 2022 summer transfer window.

Although Los Pericos suffered relegation in his first season at the RCDE Stadium, Braithwaite helped them secure an immediate bounce-back promotion. In 2023/24, he was the top scorer in LaLiga Hypermotion with 22 goals, which helped lead the team to the playoffs. The striker sat out Euro 2024 with Denmark in order to help Los Pericos return to LaLiga EA Sports, before departing to move to Brazilian side Grêmio.

Philippe Coutinho (RCD Espanyol 2015, FC Barcelona 2018-2022)

The Brazil international had a short but sweet loan spell at the RCDE Stadium with RCD Espanyol in 2012 on loan from Italian side Inter Milan, scoring five goals across a brief half-season stint in the Catalan capital.

Six years later, he returned to the city with much fanfare as FC Barcelona’s record €135 million signing from Liverpool. With Los Blaugranas he won two LaLiga EA Sports titles (2018, 2019) and two Copa del Rey winner’s medals (2018, 2021) scoring 25 goals along the way, but he struggled for consistency under different managers. He was loaned out in 2020 to Bayern Munich, with whom he won the Champions League, and to Aston Villa in 2022. He has now returned to his native Brazil to play for Vasco da Gama.

Ernesto Valverde (As a player: RCD Espanyol 1986-1988, FC Barcelona 1988-1990; As a coach: RCD Espanyol 2006-2008, FC Barcelona 2017-2020)

The current Athletic Club boss is the only man in history to have not only played for both clubs but also managed both sides.

He played three seasons at RCD Espanyol between 1986 and 1989, scoring 16 goals as a deep-lying forward, before jumping across town to FC Barcelona. In his two seasons as a Barça player he won the Cup Winner’s Cup (1989) and Copa del Rey (1990), before leaving for Athletic Club.

Despite a very creditable player career, Valverde has gone on to bigger and better things as a manager, including coaching both sides from the Elderbi de Barcelona divide. He coached RCD Espanyol between 2006 and 2008, leading the side all the way to the final of the Uefa Cup only to fall on penalties to fellow LaLiga EA Sports side Sevilla FC. His legacy was such that his name sits above Gate 89 at the club’s stadium to this day.

Fast forward to 2017 and Valverde was the man chosen to take the reins from Luis Enrique at his other former club, FC Barcelona. His hugely successful stint in the Spotify Camp Nou dugout yielded two LaLiga EA Sports titles (2017, 2018), a Copa del Rey (2018) and a Spanish Super Cup (2018).

Iván de la Peña (FC Barcelona 1993-1898 & 2000-2001, RCD Espanyol 2002-2011)

Iván de la Peña has gone down in history as one of the most iconic players in RCD Espanyol history. Together with Raúl Tamudo and Luis García, he made up a highly popular three-way attack which epitomised Los Pericos for almost a decade and was part of the side which won the club’s fourth Copa del Rey title in 2006.

Funnily enough, though, he came through the ranks at FC Barcelona, where he played in the youth ranks alongside Xavi Hernández. He made his debut under Johan Cruyff in 1995 and went on to play five seasons for the first team, winning LaLiga EA Sports in 1998, two Copas del Rey (1997, 1998) and the Club Winner’s Cup (1997), among other titles.

Samuel Eto’o (RCD Espanyol 1998, FC Barcelona 2004-2009)

It might come as a surprise to many, but as well as playing for FC Barcelona’s eternal rivals Real Madrid Samuel Eto’o also played for their city rivals RCD Espanyol, albeit briefly, in the late 1990s. In 1998, the then 17-year-old Cameroonian striker joined Los Pericos on loan from Real Madrid, making just one 32-minute appearance in the Copa del Rey against Real Valladolid.

Fast forward six years, and Eto’o was a major European star when he joined FC Barcelona after a prolific spell with RCD Mallorca. He scored in both the 2006 and 2009 Uefa Champions League finals for the Blaugrana and totalled 108 strikes in 144 LaLiga EA Sports matches across five seasons. He remains one of the club’s all-time top scorers.