Joan Garcia is one of ten goalkeepers shortlisted for the 2026 Goalkeeper of the Year award, and the Joan Garcia Ballon d’Or nomination is the first the Barcelona men’s team have collected on a day when the full lists were rolled out category by category. It arrives a little over a year after he crossed the city from Espanyol — and less than 24 hours before he is expected to start the Blaugrana’s Champions League opener against Feyenoord.
He is not alone. Barca Femeni are up for Women’s Club of the Year and Pere Romeu for Women’s Coach of the Year, giving the club three nominations in a single morning.
The Joan Garcia Ballon d’Or nomination in full
The Ballon d’Or published the goalkeeping list on Tuesday. Garcia is joined by Yassine Bounou, Thibaut Courtois, Gregor Kobel, Emiliano Martinez, Edouard Mendy, David Raya, Matvey Safonov, Unai Simon and Cape Verde’s Vozinha.
Three of the ten are Spanish, and Barca have already faced one: Unai Simon’s four saves at the Spotify Camp Nou kept Athletic Club in a game they were losing badly everywhere else.
A debut season that ended with the Zamora
The case for Garcia is a season, not a highlight reel. Barcelona activated his Espanyol release clause in the summer of 2025, absorbed the noise that comes with signing a goalkeeper from their city rivals, then watched him win the job outright.
He finished the campaign with the Zamora Trophy, given to the La Liga goalkeeper with the best goals-to-games ratio, after conceding 21 goals in 30 appearances, per Barca Blaugranes. Barca Universal count 15 La Liga clean sheets in a title-winning season. He was also part of Spain’s World Cup-winning squad this summer without getting on the pitch.
We wrote in August about why the No.1 shirt was never really in question, even with Wojciech Szczesny and summer arrival Dominik Livakovic behind him, and the clean-sheet habit Hansi Flick’s defence has built has carried into this season.
Barca Femeni among five for Women’s Club of the Year
The women’s team are nominated alongside Bayern Munich, Club America, Manchester City and OL Lyonnes. Their season needs little explaining: Liga F, the Copa de la Reina, the Supercopa de Espana and a fourth Women’s Champions League, sealed with a 4-0 win over OL Lyonnes in the final in Oslo in May, as reported by Mundo Deportivo.
They go into the vote as reigning European champions and into a rebuild: five signings arrived this summer, and the squad no longer contains Alexia, Mapi, Ona or Salma. Patri Guijarro leads it now, and her first speech as captain set the tone. The next landmark is a Women’s Clasico at the Camp Nou on 4 October.
Pere Romeu and a five-man coaching list
Romeu is shortlisted after a season in which his side won all four trophies available to them. He faces Jonatan Giraldez, the man he replaced at Barca in 2024, who has since won a domestic treble in France with OL Lyonnes; Andree Jeglertz of Manchester City; Japan head coach Nils Nielsen; and Elena Sadiku of BK Hacken. Sarina Wiegman won it last year.
Mundo Deportivo also report that Barca Femeni goalkeeper Cata Coll is nominated in the women’s goalkeeper category.
London, 26 October — the day after El Clasico
The ceremony moves to London for the first time on 26 October, marking the award’s 70th anniversary and honouring Stanley Matthews, the first winner in 1956. Barcelona will arrive with a loaded 48 hours behind them: El Clasico against Real Madrid is on 25 October.
Before any of that, there is a European campaign to start. Lamine Yamal dealt with the Ballon d’Or questions at Tuesday’s press conference by refusing to campaign for anything, while Flick said the squad has the quality to win the competition but has to prove it. Garcia said nothing at all. He will just be the one standing behind all of it at 18:45 CEST on Wednesday.
Nominee lists were published by the Ballon d’Or and reported by Barca Blaugranes, Barca Universal and Mundo Deportivo, whose Spanish-language reporting on the women’s nominations is translated here. Squad information is published by FC Barcelona.
