U.S. teenager Ben Lederman has returned to Barcelona's academy following a FIFA ruling that banished him from the club.
Lederman signed a new deal with the club and will play for its Juvenil B side once the necessary paperwork is completed. Now 16, Lederman was forced to leave Barcelona in 2014 after FIFA found the club in violation of Article 19 of its Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players, which prohibits the signing of players under 18 outside of their home country. There are three exceptions to the rule, according to FIFA's bylaws: If a player's parents move to that country for reasons outside of his soccer career; if it's a transfer between two teams that are in European Union nations and the player is between 16 and 18; and "the player lives no further than 50 kilometers from a national border and the club with which the player wishes to be registered in the neighboring association is also within 50 kilometers of that border.