Nine from FC Barcelona who have played in a cup final before

Saturday is Copa del Rey Final day, and for several Barça players, including Lamine Yamal, Fermín Lopez and Pau Cubarsí, it's a new experience for them. It certainly isn't for the club though, as the Catalans have won the trophy a record 31 times over the years, and there are nine members of the team who have previous cup final experience, though not necessarily in Spain.

Pedri, Ter Stegen, Araujo and De Jong, the four 'survivors'

A lot has changed at Barça in the last half-decade, and only four of the current squad were in the team the last time we played in the cup final, a 4-0 defeat of Athletic Club. Ter Stegen, Pedri and Frenkie de Jong all started that game, while Araujo came on in the 82nd minute. Reserve keeper Iñaki Peña was also around, but didn't get to play.

Frenkie and Marc-André's earlier experiences

Frenkie de Jong had already won a cup before he even came to Barça. That was in the Dutch Cup, which his Ajax side also won 4-0 against Willem II. And Ter Stegen had also featured in Barça's earlier cup wins, a 3-1 defeat of Athletic in 2015 and a 2-0 win over Sevilla the year after.

Iñigo Martinez seeking first win

Iñigo Martínez also played in the 2021 final, but for the other team, Athletic Club. Not only did that game end in disappointment, but the 2020 final did too. That was the rather bizarre year when the pandemic meant the game with Real Sociedad was delayed until just two weeks before the 2021 final. Athletic and Iñigo were faced by the infamous situation of losing two cup finals in the space of just a fortnight.

Raphinha, three in Portugal

Way back in 2017, the Brazilian was at Vitória Guimarães when they lost 2-1 to Benfica in the Portuguese cup final, where he gave the assist for his team's goal. Two years later he was at Sporting Lisbon, and played the Cup and the League Cup finals, both against Porto, and winning both times on penalties.

Lewy, five cups

Robert Lewandowski has never played a cup final for Barça but has more experience of these games than anyone in the team. No fewer than seven finals, five of which he won! His first was in Poland with Lech Poznan against Ruch Chorzow in 2009 and he then played two at Borussia Dortmund, beating Bayern 5-2 in 2012 (and scoring a hat-trick), but losing to the same side in extra time in 2014.

The same two teams played the 2016 final, but Robert was now playing for Bayern. He scored in the shootout that his team won. In 2018, he scored but Bayern lost 3-1 to Eintracht Frankfurt, and in two further finals, he scored twice each time as Bayern beat Leipzig 3-0 and Bayer Leverkusen 4-2.

Olmo, six finals and three wins

Dani Olmo is just 26 but has already played no fewer than six cup finals, three with Dinamo Zagreb and three with RB Leipzig. In Croatia he played three in a row from 2017 to 2019. The first and third were both against Rijeka, and both ended in 3-1 defeats.

In between, Dinamo lifted the cup with a 1-0 defeat of Hajduk Split. He then played three in a row again, from 2021 to 2023, this time in Germany. He scored but his team lost in 2021, 4-1 to Borussia Dortmund. The other were happier occasions, a win on penalties over Freiburg and a 2-0 defeat of Eintracht Frankfurt.

Szczęsny and Christensen in England

The Polish keeper was at Arsenal when the Gunners lost the EFL Cup final 2-1 against Birmingham City, but four years later kept a clean sheet in a 4-0 defeat of Aston Villa in the FA Cup.

Andreas Christensen also played an FA Cup final in his Chelsea days in 2020, which his team lost 2-1 to Arsenal.