Playing for Barcelona is usually the peak of a professional footballer's career. 

The Spanish club are widely regarded as one of the greatest ever and so many brilliant players have turned out for them.

In recent years, those at the club have had the chance to play with Lionel Messi, who will go down in history as perhaps their best ever forward.

With world-class teammates all over the pitch and over 90,000 fans packing into the Nou Camp for every home game, playing for Barcelona is really as good as it gets.

Unless you're Jeremy Mathieu.

The defender spent three years in Catalonia between 2014 and 2017, making just 62 La Liga appearances.

It's fair to say he wasn't exactly a regular in the Barca team and when he did play, he often took harsh criticism from the Spanish press, something that he believes was unfair.  

Now at Sporting CP, he has a chance to impress against his former side when they visit in the Champions League on Wednesday.  

Ahead of the game, the 33-year-old explained that he felt stung by criticism when in Spain, especially from the national paper Sport.

"The newspaper Sport, I'm a little f***** up with them because every time I played they always had something bad to say against me," he said, as per Goal. 

It's not just the Spanish press that Mathieu doesn't miss after moving to Portugal. But when asked if he would celebrate should he score against his former club, he had an interesting response.

The defender claimed he may want to do so to get back at Josep Bartomeu and Robert Fernandez, Barca's president and sporting director. 

"I don't know [if I would celebrate]," he said. "I have a lot of respect for my former team-mates and the fans.

"If I celebrate it will be for Bartomeu and Robert Fernandez, because I think the way they treated me was very difficult for me.

"It was just the two of them. But that's football and now I'm very happy. I do not care anymore."

It sounds like Mathieu still has an axe to grind with the pair, despite saying he's over it. 

Perhaps beating his old club on Wednesday would go some way to healing the wounds of three disappointing years at Barcelona.