Barcelona: The Champions League connection

The Blaugrana have a long list of names who used to represent the club as a player or coach that will take part in the competition during the coming season.

The Champions League gets underway on Tuesday for the 2016/17 season in which numerous former Barcelona employees seek to join the group stages of Europe's premier competition.

Full focus will be on the National Arena in Bucharest where Pep Guardiola's Manchester City face Steaua Bucharest, with Nolito set to be part of the starting line-up. "We will try to score goals and convince the players how important and nice it is to play in the Champions League," Guardiola said, "We will try to win [the competition]."

The former Barça coach - who won a historic treble in his debut season at the helm - has taken a 21-man squad to Romania but hasn't included Yaya Toure, who was also together with Guardiola during his time at the Camp Nou.

Luis Enrique and Phillip Cocu are of course already in the group-stages with Barça and PSV Eindhoven respectively but they could be joined by a further three former Blaugrana players in Guardiola, Oscar Garcia and Thomas Christiansen.

Garcia's Red Bull Salzburg face Dinamo Zagreb while Christiansen's APOEL Nicosia face off against FC Copenhagen.

Former Barça players Jonathan dos Santos and Dani Olmo - who represent Villarreal and Dynamo Zabreb respectively - are also aiming to join the group stages as well as Thomas Vermaelen who is currently on loan to AS Roma.

Thiago Alcantara (Bayern Munich), Grimaldo (Benfica), Thiago Motta and Maxwell (Paris Saint-Germain), Marc Bartra (Borussia Dortmund), Hector Bellerin and Alexis Sanchez (Arsenal), Pepe Reina (Napoli) and Adriano and Quaresma (Besiktas) are already in the group stages.