Despite Barça’s decision not to have a traditional pre-season tour this summer, the team will be playing several friendly games that will involve more than 14,000 kilometers of travel in Europe and Africa.

Diario Sport provides a nice summary of Barça’s preseason plans. On July 24th, Barça will play the first friendly match against Hamburg, as a celebration of the 125th anniversary of the German club. Then, they will travel to Tangiers (Morocco) to play on July 28th against Casablanca based side Raja Club Athletic.

The next game will be in Paris, on August 4th, against Paris Saint-Germain. Then, the team will travel to Göteborg, Sweden, to play Manchester United on August 8th. A couple of days later, the preseason friendly games will conclude in Bucharest, with a game against local club Dinamo Bucarest on August 11th.

After those games, the team will start La Liga on August 18th against Real Sociedad, and then face Madrid in the Spanish Supercup.

Also, with the summer holidays over, some players will start the preseason on Monday, mainly those who didn’t have to play in a major tournament over the summer. So, tomorrow Messi, Dani Alves, Pinto, Mascherano, Alexis, Afellay, Adriano, Thiago, Cuenca, Fontàs, Bartra, Muniesa, and Dos Santos will join Tito Vilanova and the coaching staff to kick off the 2012-13 season. Finally! What a long summer!

Image Credit: FC Barcelona