Former Barcelona goalkeeper Francesc Arnau has died at the age of 46, Real Oviedo confirmed via their Twitter account on Saturday morning.
Arnau had been working as Oviedo's sporting director since 2019.
Francesc joined Barcelona's youth set-up in 1990 and went on to make his senior debut for the Catalans in a 3-3 draw with Atletico Madrid in 1996.
Arnau made 37 first-team appearances for the Blaugrana before leaving the club for Malaga in 2001.
"We deeply regret the death of Francesc Arnau (1975), who joined FC Barcelona at youth level and became a first-team goalkeeper between 1998 and 2001. He was most recently the sporting director at Real Oviedo. Rest in peace," Barcelona said via their Twitter account.
The manner of Arnau's death is unknown.
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BREAKING: Messi decides to continue at Barca (reliability: 5 stars)
Lionel Messi has decided to extend his stay at Barcelona, according to Achraf Ben Ayad of beIN SPORTS.
Ben Ayad isn't among the most trustworthy sources but since reputable Gerard Romero of RAC1 has retweeted his update, let's give it a five-star reliability rating.
The 33-year-old's current contract expires at the end of the season.
The fact that Leo has been given permission to miss Saturday's clash at Eibar - Barca's final game of the 2020/21 campaign, only proves the suggestion over his decision to continue at Camp Nou. That would be all but impossible to imagine Messi leaving Barca without a proper farewell.
'Wouldn't be surprised if he didn't want to make it public': Fan explains why Messi could've played his last Barca game vs Celta
Leo Messi is going to miss Barca's final game of the season against Eibar – and some Cules actually believe his time at Blaugrana is up.
Here's how one of them explains this feeling, via Reddit.
cristiano-potato: "Messi, according to his own interview with GOAL, knew he was wanting to leave all last season and didn't say it to the fans. And didn't publicly announce it even after the Bayern [8-2] game.
"He's always struck me as a bit shy and I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't want to make a public announcement about it being his last game. And I'm also not so sure a game in an empty stadium against Eibar would be such an important last game."
Another Reddit user and Blaugrana fan nicknamed Puzzleheaded19 echoes his words.
"He was visibly distraught during the Celta match. Looked like he has had enough with the team. Fingers crossed."
