There was no Gamper for the women last summer. The calendar swallowed it, the squad went straight into a season that ended with a quadruple, and the traditional night in front of their own supporters simply never happened. On Friday, the Barcelona Femeni Gamper returns — and it brings the most expensive signing in the section’s history with it.
Pere Romeu’s side face Brighton at 20:00 on Friday in the Trofeu Joan Gamper, Mundo Deportivo report, in a friendly that doubles as a party and as the final rehearsal before the Liga F season begins. It is the night the four new arrivals are formally handed to the Culers, and the night Kerolin is presented as a record buy.
Four new faces, one record fee
Barca will present Van Asten, McCamey, Martina Fernandez and Kerolin, with the Brazilian arriving as the club’s most expensive women’s signing ever — a marker in itself for a section that has spent most of its history developing rather than buying.
There is a neat quirk in the fixture, too. Two of the new signings have already faced Friday’s opponents: Martina Fernandez and Kerolin both played against Brighton in the Women’s Super League last season, with Everton and Manchester City respectively. Whatever the scoreline does on the night, at least two of the debutants will know exactly what is coming down the flanks.
That recruitment sits against a summer of change. A number of senior contracts at Barca Femeni ran out at the end of last season, and the rebuild that followed a historic 2025-26 — Liga F, the Copa de la Reina, the Supercopa and the Women’s Champions League — has been quieter than the trophy haul suggests it should be. Four signings in one presentation is Romeu’s answer.
A proper Gamper night, restored
The trimmings are all back. There will be the traditional speeches from the captains and from Romeu, an award ceremony for supporters in attendance, and a half-time performance from the singer Maria Jaume. It is a deliberate attempt to give the women’s side the same ceremonial welcome the men get, rather than a friendly bolted on to the end of pre-season.
Tickets remain available from €17, with a 25% discount for groups — a pointed piece of pricing for a section whose biggest nights have filled stadiums when the club has made it easy to turn up.
It also lands 48 hours after the men’s edition, with Hansi Flick’s side hosting Al Ahly at the Spotify Camp Nou on Wednesday night in the 61st Gamper. Two presentations, two squads, one week — the club has effectively turned the trophy into a season-launch festival across both teams.
Barcelona Femeni Gamper: the last look before Liga F
Beneath the ceremony there is a football problem to solve. Brighton is the final test before the Liga F opener on 30 August at the Estadi Johan Cruyff against Costa Adeje Tenerife, which gives Romeu one more 90 minutes to work out how his new forwards fit alongside the players who won everything last season.
That is the real value of Friday. We have written before about how the Tenerife opener became Romeu’s first real reset test, and the Barcelona Femeni Gamper is where the shape of that reset should first become visible — who starts, who partners whom, and how quickly a squad with four new members starts to look like a team again.
Kick-off is 20:00 CEST on Friday. For a side that did not get this night last year, having it back at all feels like the point.
