FC Barcelona News

Barça’s big signing of the season arrived in the Nou Camp yesterday to be greeted by more than 60,000 people, more than those who had turned out for Ronaldinho and Henry’s presentations combined. Zlatan Ibrahimovic arrived at the club yesterday morning, where he underwent medical examinations before signing his contract.

Some fans have been waiting outside the stadium all day and in the end the gates were opened early to avoid anyone being injured in the crush outside.

Ibrahimovic wore the number 9 shirt, where to the Barça anthem blaring over the tannoy he showed off his ball skills to the crowd, eventually taking the mike and finishing in Catalan, always guaranteed to set off a great response – “Gràcies a tots. Visca el Barça!” – Thanks to all. Long live Barça.

Afterwards he compared the experience with the birth of his children.

If you want to see Ibrahimovic playing for Barça at the Nou Camp, keep an eye on our homepage for availability of FC Barcelona tickets.

FC Barcelona has just said goodbye to its third highest goal scorer ever, with the departure of Samuel Eto’o for Inter Milan.

The player moved to Barcelona in 2004 and made an immediate impact by scoring 25 goals in his first season. Every time he sets foot on a pitch he is a potential goal-scoring machine and well respected for his commitment to the team as a whole – but for some reason, not by Pep Guardiola, who didn’t seem to be able to handle the player.

His remarkable career with Barcelona saw him score 108 goals in 145 league matches; and in Champions League he played 40 matches and scored 18 time.

While many supporters will miss him play, it was made abundantly clear to him that he was not welcome in the squad; one of Guardiola’s first announcements when taking over as Barça coach was that he would sell Eto’o; and this year he has been clear that he wants him out.

With Zlatan Ibrahimovic arriving in Barcelona for a medical this week, let’s hope he can reproduce even a fraction of the goalscoring capability Barça has decided it just doesn’t need.

According to Italian news reports today quoting his agent, Samuel Eto’o has today reached a deal with Inter Milan.

While no official announcement has been made, Josep Maria Mesalles went on to say that Eto’o’s exit agreement with Barcelona was still not finalised, but he would arrive in Milan early next week. With him goes Alexander Hleb, on loan for a year, while Zlatan Ibrahimovic will join Barça from the Italian club.

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Samuel Eto’o is reportedly furious at talks between Barcelona and Inter Milan, without him being consulted about any move to the Italian club.

The Cameroon striker will return to Barcelona next week after his holidays, with a deal agreed between Barça and Inter to sell Eto’o for €40 million plus the loan of Aleksandr Hleb in exchange for Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Eto’o is reported to announce his decision later in the week once he has considered the deal fully and as the deal cannot go ahead without Eto’o’s say so, Barça are keeping their options open and are still talking about the possibility of signing David Villa from Valencia.

So far this season Barcelona have been slow to finalise any deals – their only signing to date is Brazilian left back Maxwell Scherer, also from Inter Milan.

We now have tickets for all Spanish League fixtures. You can find availability of Barcelona tickets at the Nou Camp on our homepage.

One piece of good news from the recent wrangling between players and management is that Victor Valdes contract has been renewed for another 5 years, potentially allowing the Barça goalkeeper to retire at the club.

Negotiations with the 27 year old player’s manager broke down recently, with Joan Laporta insisting that they deal direct with Valdes instead, with the aim of resolving the standoff. It is difficult to imagine Barça without the opinionated Valdes, who is also third Captain behind Carles Puyol and Xavi Hernadez, and despite coming in from some criticism he does a solid job when the Barcelona defense fails.

And as a product of the Barça youth system, born in nearby Hospitalet de LLobregat, it is almost impossible to imagine him playing for another club, especially in Spain. However, the deadlock was broken on Tuesday, when the player and Barcelona management agreed terms.

“Barcelona continues with its stance of not wanting to let me go and I understand it,” Messi said. “But I also think they have to understand that my dream is to take part in the Olympic Games with the national team.”

Sometimes it’s hard to fully understand the thought processes that go on in the heads of Barcelona’s management team, and the attempts to block Lionel Messi from playing for Argentina in the Beijing Olympics is one.

Messi announced earlier this year that he wanted to play in the Olympics, because it could be his only chance. However, Barcelona seem intent to alienate their star player by preventing him from doing exactly that. They did requrest for FIFA to make a decision, although FIFA had already done so in stating their policy that tems have to let anyone under the age of 23 play in the Olympics.

Today FIFA has announced at a hearing that FC Barcelona must let Messi play, but of course Barcelona are now going to appeal this decision.

While there is some risk of injury to the young Argentinian, surely Barcelona wants to keep his moral up at the same level it has been during this last tricky year. If they think it is all about forcing their players to do what they want they really have no idea about the dynamics of a team and deserve to fall flat on their faces.

It’s now been confirmed that Brazilian superstar Ronaldinho will be leaving Barcelona for AC Milan after coming to an agreement on Tuesday night.

Although his last season with Barça was bitterly disappointing, he was well loved by fans and brought some real magic to the Nou Camp. Let´s hope that he can regain even a little of his form in Italy and continues to dazzle for years to come.

Troubled FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta has today confirmed that AC Milan and Manchester City have tabled bids for Ronaldinho.

While Man City have more money on the table, the former club wonder boy favours a move to Italy, no doubt for the better climate as well as to join fellow Brazilian players. Laporta believes that negociations should be completed this week.

Barcelona’s 4-1 defeat by Real Madrid on Wednesday proved to be the last straw for the club directors, who met on Thursday to discus Frank Rijkaard’s future. Joan Laporta confirmed the inevitable at the press conference that followed, saying that Frank Rijkaard would leave at the end of June, with B team coach Pep Guardiola stepping up to take over for next season.

Guardiola was part of Barcelona’s “dream team” and seen by many as the ideal candidate – ex-Barça player, Catalan and already part of the furniture. However, it isn’t a view held by everyone and it remains to be seen whether he can breathe life back into a much demoralized squad.

The summer saw some interesting activity for Barcelona. Thierry Henry finally settled seasons of speculation and made the move from Arsenal. This gives Barca a wealth of opportunities up front but Henry’s versatility and ability to play as a lone striker or on the wings in a striking formation will certainly seem to work to Barça’s advantage.

In the same week the club also signed midfielder Yaya Toure from Monaco and defender Eric Abidal from Lyon. It’s generally thought that Abidal was signed as a direct replacement for Giovanni Van Bronckhorst. Finally, the club also signed Gabi Milito from Real Zaragoza which fills the hole left by the departure of Motta for Atletico Madrid.

Gio Van Bronckhorst made the move back to Feyenoord over the summer. Although he had recently signed a contract until 2008 with Barca, he had a verbal commitment from the club that they would allow him to move back to Feyenoord, the club he supported as a child and where he first played football, if they came in for him.

Maxi Lopez, after a season’s loan at Mallorca, made a permanent move to FC Moscow. The striker didn’t look likely to get a first team chance at Barça, especially after the arrival of Thierry Henry. The same could be said for Saviola who left for Real Madrid on a free transfer after his contract was not renewed in June and Giuly who, with a year left on his contract, made the move to Roma. Both players found it hard to break into the team last season and with the arrival of new players and the emergence of home-grown forward talent, they seemed unlikely to be able to make much of an impact this season either.

In defence, Belletti finally made his much speculated about move to Chelsea. The 31 year old found it hard to compete for a first team place with Zambrotta in such fine form so was allowed to go. Finally, Motta fell out with coach Frank Rijkaard in the summer and was put on the transfer list. The player found it hard to consolidate his place in midfield at Barcelona – a position which wasn’t likely to change given the current talent, new signings and the emergence of youth players – so eventually agreed a one-year deal with Atletico Madrid.

The summer also saw the emergence of two Barça Youth players who may well make their mark on the first team this season. Bojan Krkic has progressed through the youth set up in phenomenal time and, although only 17, is hailed as one of the most exciting striking prospects in the game. Giovani Dos Santos, also a forward player, is also considered a ‘Wonder Kid’ and has been hailed as the new Ronaldinho.

Players in:

Thierry Henry, Arsenal (£16.1m)
Yaya Toure, Monaco (£6.1m)
Eric Abidal, Lyon (£10m)
Gabi Milito, Real Zaragoza (£12.1m)

Players Out:

Giovanni Van Bronckhorst, Feyenoord (Free)
Maxi Lopez, FC Moscow (£1.3m)
Javier Saviola, Real Madrid (Free)
Ludovic Giuly, Roma (£2m)
Belletti, Chelsea (£3.7m)
Motta, Atletico Madrid (undisclosed)