Jesse Bisiwu has been named in Juliano Belletti’s Barça Atlètic squad for Sunday’s trip to Logroñés Promesas, putting Barcelona’s €8.5 million summer signing in line for the first competitive appearance of his Barça career — three months after he arrived, and rather later than anyone at the club expected.
As Barça Universal report, the 18-year-old Belgian winger was included in the reserve-team list published by the club on Saturday, having been left out of the senior squad that travels to the Ciutat de València to face Levante.
Why Jesse Bisiwu’s debut has taken so long
Bisiwu joined from Club Brugge this summer in a deal worth €8.5 million plus add-ons and went straight into first-team pre-season, where he did enough to suggest the jump would not intimidate him. He was handed the No.27 shirt in the club’s official squad-number announcement, alongside fellow Atlètic forward Hamza Abdelkarim.
Then the paperwork got in the way. Registration issues meant Hansi Flick could not name him in a matchday squad for the opening weeks of the season, and by the time those were resolved, a second obstacle had appeared. Bisiwu picked up a knock in the Copa Catalunya final against Sabadell — an unofficial fixture in which he played just 12 minutes — and the club sent him for tests rather than risk him.
That ruled him out of Barça Atlètic’s opening RFEF Segunda Federación fixture, a 5-0 win over Naxara in which summer arrival Ignasi Quer scored four times. It has taken until this weekend for him to be cleared.
Left out at Levante, cleared for Logroñés
The two decisions are connected. Bisiwu returned to first-team training this week, which briefly raised the possibility of a senior debut at Levante, but he was absent from Saturday’s group session at the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper — SPORT reported that he trained alone, in trainers, as he completed the final stage of his recovery.
Barcelona have been deliberate about this. Rather than throw a teenager straight into a La Liga away day off the back of a lay-off, the plan is minutes with the reserves first, under a coach in Belletti who knows exactly what the first team wants from him. It is the same managed pathway the club has used with its younger forwards this season, and it is the reason the Levante squad went out without him.
What Barcelona are getting
Bisiwu is a direct, left-footed wide forward who is comfortable on either flank and quick enough to attack a full-back from a standing start. Brugge had him in and around their senior setup before Barcelona moved, and the fee — substantial for an 18-year-old — reflects a market in which clubs now pay early for players they expect to develop rather than buy finished.
He has already been the subject of an international tug-of-war, with Ghana making an approach for a player raised in the Belgian system. That kind of attention does not tend to find teenagers who are merely squad filler.
The immediate route to the first team is narrow, and honestly so. Flick can pick from Lamine Yamal, Raphinha, Anthony Gordon, Karim Adeyemi and Dani Olmo in the wide areas, and Barcelona have started the season scoring freely enough that nobody is agitating for changes. Roony Bardghji, the other young winger on the books, is out long term with an ACL rupture and is not registered in La Liga, which technically thins the queue — but it has not opened a door.
So Sunday at Logroñés Promesas matters less as a stepping stone than as a starting line. Bisiwu has been a Barcelona player since July without kicking a competitive ball for the club. Getting on the pitch, in any shirt, is the point.
