By Kieran King
Mason Greenwood's Barcelona audition ended in defeat and disappointment as his Getafe side were comfortably beaten 4-0 at Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys.
The 22-year-old, who joined Getafe on loan from Manchester United last summer, has impressed since his move, scoring seven goals and providing five assists in 24 matches before Saturday's trip to the Catalan region. However, Greenwood's long-term future is still up in the air.
It was reported last month that Barcelona are leading the race to sign the England international this summer, while Atletico Madrid have also been linked. Sir Jim Ratcliffe suggested earlier this week that Greenwood could still play for United again - six months since the club confirmed that he does not have a future at Old Trafford.
In the meantime, Greenwood was in action for Getafe against Barcelona but the winger failed to impress his potential new employers. He provided a threat for the visitors, but lacked quality in the final third, posting three shots without really troubling goalkeeper Marc Andre der Stegen.
Greenwood's clearest chance came with the score still goalless but he dragged the ball well wide from the edge of the box. Moments later, Barcelona then took the lead as ex-Leeds attacker Raphinha fired home. Joao Felix doubled Barca's advantage after the interval before Frenkie de Jong added a third on the hour mark.
Getafe boss Jose Bordalas decided to make a series of changes in the hope of turning the game on its head, with Greenwood one of those sacrificed. He was replaced in the 67th minute, having not had the desired impact as he may have hoped. He finished the game on two key passes, though he completed just 20 passes throughout his time on the pitch with a success rate of 80 per cent.
Barcelona wrapped up a 4-0 victory in injury time as Fermin Lopez scored to condemn Getafe to their first defeat in four matches since losing against Real Madrid earlier this month.
United announced back in August that Greenwood will not play for the club again after they conducted a six-month internal investigation amid serious allegations. The England forward was arrested in January 2022 and later charged with attempted rape, controlling and coercive behaviour and assault occasioning actual bodily harm. All charges were dropped in February 2023.
However, Ratcliffe opened up a potential route back to United for Greenwood. He said: "We will make a decision, correct. All I can do is talk about the principle of how we will approach decisions like that. Is he the right type of footballer, are we happy with if is he a good person or not?
"He’s a Manchester United footballer, so we are in charge of football. So the answer is 'yeah, we have to make decisions. It’s quite clear we have to make a decision. There is no decision that’s been made. He’s on-loan obviously, but he’s not the only one. We’ve got one or two footballers that we have to deal with and we have to make a decision on, so we will do that."
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