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Full Time: A show about women's soccer

Why Barcelona will start the season with only 17 players

Full Time: A show about women's soccer

The Athletic

News, Soccer, Sports News, Sports

4.8756 Ratings

🗓️ 29 August 2025

⏱️ 37 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A new season of Liga F starts this weekend in Spain; however, the reigning champion Barcelona only has 17 players currently registered to play. This summer, the 2024-25 UEFA Women's Champions League runner-up saw six players leave, including the puzzling departure of Fridolina Rolfo. Much of this can be attributed to the club's financial situation on the men's side, while the women remain the only profitable team within the organization.


The Athletic's writers Pol Ballus and Melanie Anzidei join host Jillian Sakovits to explain what's happening with the European giants and how cost-cutting is impacting the future of one of the best teams in the world.


PLUS: Get focused with Full Time's 1-2-3 of what to watch this Labor Day weekend, from a battle between the two most recent league champions to a return home for the Washington Spirit and a look at the Liga F season kickoff in Spain. And, ask yourself, "How far would you go for love?"

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Referenced on the show:

What’s happening at Barcelona?: Only 17 active player contracts and more departures expected

What Fridolina Rolfo’s Barcelona exit says about the club’s financial situation

Manchester United sign Fridolina Rolfo following Barcelona departure

Marcus Rashford, Joan Garcia registered by La Liga in time for Barcelona’s first game

NWSL summer window review: Record transfer fee, hidden gems and expansion team building

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HOST: Jillian Sakovits

GUESTS: Pol Ballus and Melanie Anzidei

PRODUCER: Emily Olsen and Tre Hester

VIDEO PRODUCER: Lia Griffin

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Get in touch: [email protected]

Follow on Instagram and TikTok: @tafulltime

Subscribe to the Full Time newsletter ⁠here⁠

Visit the Yahoo Women's Sports hub ⁠here


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Transcript

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0:00.0

Change isn't coming. It's already here. Commerce is going digital and tax complexity is multiplying.

0:07.0

Tax rules evolve, rate shift, data floods in. Vertex connects it all.

0:15.0

A global tax compliance platform powered by tax-ready data and intelligence systems. Smarter tech, continuous tax compliance, built-in confidence. Learn more at vertexinck.com. Disney Lullaby, a cute playlist with soothing lullaby versions of Disney songs.

0:47.8

The Disney Lullaby playlist. Listen now. Music The reality is now you also have to decide what kind of players you want to keep on your roster.

1:11.8

Are you going to invest in veteran talent? Are you going to invest in players that are able to

1:16.4

develop this next generation that Barcelona has to inevitably focus on because they might

1:20.4

not have the finances to keep the more expensive talent, the more rising stars that might gain

1:25.7

interest from other clubs overseas?

1:32.3

Yeah. more rising stars that might gain interest from other clubs overseas. Hello, everybody. I'm Jillian Sackavits. A very warm welcome to full-time focus. It is presented

1:37.7

by Amazon Prime. What a show we have for you today as we try to answer answer what the heck is going on with Barcelona ahead of

1:46.6

League F kicking off and to help us make sense as to why there are just at the moment 17 active players

1:53.1

on Barcelona's roster. We are joined by the athletics Paul Bayous and Melanie Ansiday. They're going to

1:59.9

break down the financial turmoil that got Barcelona

2:02.5

to this point and preview the six-time reigning champions season odds. And then we'll close out our

2:07.6

full-time focus, as always, with our one, two, three of what to watch this weekend. But before we get

2:13.0

into all that, the NWSL secondary transfer window did close on Monday, and Tamara Griffin and Andrei

2:19.2

have you covered? They graded every single NWSL's window earlier this week. So go check out that

2:26.4

article on the full-time feed. But here's the highlights. The most recent news coming out of Angel

2:32.2

City with a pair of transfers away from the team that included midfielder Katie Zellem and defender Alana Kennedy, who have landed themselves at WSL side London City lionesses, which are owned by Washington Spirit owner Michelle Kang. The move does open up a pair of international spots on the Angel City roster.

2:57.9

However, the Liz Beth O'Valle record $1.5 million transfer to the Orlando Pride was the winner of this transfer window.

3:00.8

So while teams will have to wait until next year to bring in international players,

3:05.8

NWSL players can still move abroad

...

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