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    LaLiga News: Pedri gets ‘deserved holidays’ after his first year of marathon with Barça

    Pedri was belatedly granted a break from Barcelona’s serve after playing in the first two games of the 2021-22 season.

    The Spanish midfielder posted a photo of his plane on social media as he returned home to Tenerife.

    Barça shared the image with the caption “deserved vacation”.

    Pedri will not play for the blaugrana against Getafe next Sunday, while it remains to be seen whether he will be called up by Luis Enrique for the next stop for the national teams.

    The 18-year-old would return to Catalonia in time for Barça’s LaLiga match against Sevilla on 12 September.

    Pedri had only played one season with Las Palmas before joining Ronald Koeman’s Barca at the start of the 2020-21 season, but quickly became a key man.

    Since his debut last September, only Bruno Fernandes and Manu Trigueros (both 56) have appeared in multiple club matches in all of Pedri’s competitions (54, tied with Marcus Rashford) among the players of the top five European leagues.

    But Pedri also played 10 times for Spain’s senior national team during that period, including all six matches in the run-up to the Euro 2020 semi-finals.

    And there were six more Tokyo Olympics appearances as the teenager helped Spain clinch silver.

    After starting his 2020-21 season in the Spanish Under-21 team on 3 September 2020 – with four games at that level – Pedri has played 74 games for club and country in less than a year.

    Koeman was asked about Pedri’s imminent departure after Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Athletic Bilbao, in which he was replaced in the 62nd minute.

    “It is better to give him a break now, so as not to have problems in November,” explained the coach.

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