Former Barça star Caldentey hoping to burst Champions League bubble with new team Arsenal

"Football is funny like that," Mariona Caldentey told Spanish public broadcaster RTVE in an interview ahead of facing her former teammates this weekend in the Women's Champions League Final. 

The forward left FC Barcelona after ten years for pastures new last summer, after a stellar career with the blaugrana where she won three Champions League, six league titles, and five Copa de la Reina titles. 

The 29-year-old from Felanitx, Mallorca, admitted the encounter will be "very emotional" as she faces her former team, and although she hopes to score for the Gunners, she remarked that she wouldn't celebrate if she does. 

Caldentey has been a revelation since arriving in England, scoring 9 goals in 21 games, in a league season of only 22 matches. Her feats even landed her the Women's Super League Player of the Year award. 

However, the Champions League will be her only chance of silverware this season, as Chelsea, beaten by Barcelona in the last three Champions League campaigns, swept to a domestic treble in England this season. 

The World Cup winner also told Sport that she wanted to leave Barcelona to "step out of my comfort zone, to try to prove that Mariona, outside of Barça, was also capable of performing and playing good football."

The star signing in a growing league, she was an instant hit in her new home in north London. "I feel a great personal satisfaction that I've done well and that it's turned out well for me," she told Sport.

Yet, she also admitted there have been "difficult moments" this season, "when we had several bad results at the beginning, it was something I didn't really know how to deal with," she acknowledged.

After ten years in Catalonia, Caldentey became the 5th highest goalscorer in the club's history and picked up 25 trophies with Barça, so of course, she admits "wearing a shirt that isn't Barça's was a bit jarring," and it will be a "weird feeling" to play against. 

She will be hoping to prove to her former employers that they should not have let her go, as FC Barcelona take on Arsenal this Saturday in the Women's Champions League final in Lisbon at 6 pm. 

A giant screen will be set up in the newly inaugurated Glòries Park for fans to watch the game. 

Should Barça win, it would be their third consecutive Champions League crown. The most ever won in a row were five, achieved by Lyon between 2015/16 and 2019/20.