FC Barcelona News

With the transfer season open FC Barcelona has been busy shopping. As well as signing Thierry Henry, which we reported earlier in the week, Barcelona has also opened its chequebook for midfielder Yaya Touré from Monaco and today the club announced that defender Eric Abidal is joining from Olympique Lyon.

So far only Gio is leaving the club, but it is certain he won’t be the last to leave.

Full name: Giovanni van Bronckhorst
Birthplace: Rotterdam, Holland
Date of Birth: 5^th February 1975
Position: Defender
Height: 176cm
Weight: 72kg 

Previous Teams:  Arsenal, England; Glasgow Rangers, Scotland; RKC Waalwijk, Holland; Feyenoord, Holland; FC Barcelona.
National Squad/Number of Appearances: Holland/60+ Overview

Giovanni van Bronckhorst originally joined Barcelona on loan from Arsenal for the 2003-4 season before making a permanent transfer. He can play in either a left-back or left midfield position – he tends to play as a left-back for the team at the moment. An experienced defensive player, van Bronckhorst also likes to attack and is a proficient and creative crosser of the ball. He has an eye for goal and a strong and successful reputation in deadball/free-kick situations. He transferred back to Feyenoord at the end of the 2006/2007 season from Barcelona.

Facts: 

• Van Bronckhorst was the only Barca player to appear in every game of the 2005-6 Champions league campaign.
• Nicknamed Gio, van Bronckhorst has opted to have his nickname as his shirt name at Barcelona whereas previously his shirt name was van Bronckhorst. It’s thought this was partly done as Spanish commentators find it hard to pronounce the player’s surname.
• Originally signed to Arsenal to replace Emmanuel Petit, van Bronckhorst’s time at the club was marred by injury and he found it hard to break back into the team with the then emergence of players such as Ashley Cole.
• During his time with Barca he has won two Spanish Supercups (2005-6/2006-7), two League Titles (2004-5/2005-6) and the Champions League (2005-6).
• At Feyenoord he won the Dutch Cup in 1994-5.
• At Glasgow Rangers, van Bronckhorst won two League Titles (1998-9/1999-0), the League Cup (1998-9) and two Scottish Cups (1998-9/1999/0).
• Whilst at Arsenal he won the Community Shield (2001-2), the League Title (2001-2) and two Cup Finals (2001-2/2002-3).
• He was one of a record four players shown a red card during the World Cup match against Portugal in 2006 when Holland were knocked out of the competition.
• He is contracted to Barcelona until 2008 and has announced his intention to return to Feyenoord to finish his career there.

It is being widely reported that Arsenal’s Thierry Henry has signed a €24 million contract to move to FC Barcelona. Although both clubs had agreed to delay the news, the story was leaked by Cadena Ser on Friday and Henry will be appearing before the press on Monday.

After Eto’o’s comments earlier in the week the club is eager to ensure that all looks right to the world. Eto’o was seen hugging Ronaldinho at training yesterday and it was all put down to misunderstanding on both sides.

But, is that all there is to it? Eto’o also mentioned to journalists that there were two factions inside the team, one of the pro the president and the other unspecified but presumably anti-Laporta. Sandro Rossell, previously Laporta’s buddy until their big falling out, has long been considered a contender, but he looked surprised at Eto’o’s comments and it seem unlikely that he is behind any kind of coup.

What is clear though is that all is not well behind the scenes at Barça. What it is we don’t know, but Eto’o’s outburst shows that there is a tide of discontent sweeping over the players.

It seems that Samuel Eto’o isn’t the happiest chap in the Barça squad at the moment. After his long awaited return to fitness he refused to play for the last 5 minutes of the match on Sunday (according to Rijkaard) and then stormed at both Rijkaard and Ronaldinho at an appearance today. Apparently Ronadinho had apparently made a comment in a post match interview to the effect that he should have put the team first, a comment that Eto’o was clearly furious with.

Lionel Messi has been given the medical all-clear. Frank Rijkaard is free to pick the Argentinian for next Sunday’s game with Racing Santander at the Camp Nou.

Messi was injured last November 12 in Barça’s league game at the Camp Nou against Zaragoza. In the training match played on Wednesday at the Miniestadi, he showed that he is almost back to full fitness, playing so well he was one of the outstanding figures in the game, along with Eto’o and young Bojan.

Recovery stage in Argentina

The Argentinian forward has been following a meticulously planned recovery programme arranged mainly by the prestigious Doctor Dalmau, who performed surgery on the player, along with the rest of the Club Medical Services. Messi was released from hospital on November 17 and began his rehabilitation in Barcelona before returning to his home country. He was then able to spend the last weeks of recuperation with his family.

http://www.fcbarcelona.com/eng/noticias/noticias/n07020712.shtml

At the Nou Camp back in September Barcelona beat Osasuna 3-0, but with Ronaldinho playing far below his peak and Messi still out of the picture it remains to be seen whether Barça can get as good a result on Sunday night in Pamplona.

However, Samuel Eto’o is back in training with the squad and is widely expected to make his return, although Frank Rijkaard will probably choose to play it safe and not play him for the entire match.

Barcelona remain in top position in the league with 42 points, just 1 ahead of Sevilla and 4 points clear of arch-rivals Real Madrid. However, Sevilla are playing Real Sociedad who have won just 2 matches this season, meaning at least one point almost guaranteed for Sevilla – Barça need to win this match to ensure their lead and once its star players are back in action and at peak performance that lead needs to be extended.

Osasuna-FC Barcelona
Date: Sunday 4th February
Time: 21:00