Marketplace: Cáceres to play at Nou Camp this season

A 16.5 millio euros transfer, Martín Cáceres a central defence from Uruguay, will be playing for Barça the next four years. Although he's been transfered from Villareal (a team in wich he never got to be), this season he played at Recreativo de Huelva.

At 21 years of age, he's played four times for his national team and will be playing with Uruguay the next World Cup qualifiers.

Another buy, we are still expecting some sales.

Jose Martin Caceres

Related links:
-El Villareal confirma el traspaso de Martín Cáceres al Barça (lavanguardia.es)
-Martín Cáceres at wikipedia.

Marketplace: Now Piqué... Will it be a shopping spree?

Gerad Piqué at Manchester Utd (Photo: Eurosport)

I guess it depends on what we sell to finance all this new players. Some clubs seem to be interested on buying, like Inter asking price for Eto'o, Deco and Giovani (I guess they want some kind of 'bundle pack',). We'll be seeing new faces at Nou Camp, but european clubs, knowing Barça is in need of renovation may rise the price of adquisitions (some would say it's a free market, I guess).

There are talks about Ibrahimovic, but just that. Mourinho is soon to coach Inter and he may not want Ibrahimovic as he would prefer Drogba from his former team Chelsea. The price may be a swap with Eto'o, a player that I wouldn't sell as I believe will rise again next season.

Talking about Gerard Piqué, he's a central defender, who played at Manchester Utd, but comes from Barcelona (he is one of Barça's former vicepresidents grandson and played on Barça's youth clubs until 2004 when he left for Manchester). He hasn't played that much, although he played at Zaragoza (where he scored two goals and played 22 matches) for one year as a loan from Manchester, but he has been a regular at Spain's national team.

Gerard Piqué signs for Barça (r10ljung Youtube's channel)

Related links:

-Gerad Piqué at Wikipedia
-Gerard Piqué's Blog
-Gerard Piqué vuelve a casa (via lavanguardia.es)

Marketplace 2008-2009: Keita to play for Barça

Keita is near to be confirmed as Barça player for 2008-2009 season. He passed medical tests yesterday. Keita played in Sevilla F.C this season as a midfielder. Barça will pay 14 million euros for the player's rights. Last minute negotiations are being held at Seville concerning the payment of such a big sum of money (at least I think it's a big sum of money...).

Keita at Lens FC

Related links:

- Seydou Keita at wikipedia
- Seita's statistics 2007-2008 (via Terra.es)

Confirmed: Goodbye Frank, hello Pep!

It is done. Pep Guardiola will be next season's coach, although the future Barça has been preparing for months now with Txiki Beguiristain, Fc Barcelona technical manager. This has been a very personal desition of Laporta and he may face a lot of criticism for not choosing a more experienced coach, like Laudrup or Mourinho.

Rijkaard leaves two Ligas (2005 and 2006) and a Champions League in 2006 (the club's second). He was one of the icons of the renovation that Joan Laporta, Barça's president took after winning the elections in 2003.

As a player, Guardiola won six Ligas and also Barcelona's first Champions League. As a coach, he has minimal experience, being only Fc Barcelona second team coach for this season. We hope his confidence on directing a team on the field will translate while at the bench, being one of the most intelligent players ever to play Barça or any other team. Hello Pep and Good Luck! Let the offensive soccer rule again at Nou Camp.


Related links:

-Rijkaard to leave Barcelona post (via BBC SPORT)
-Rijkaard until 30th June; Guardiola to take over (via FcBarcelona.cat)
-Laporta confirma que Pep Guardiola relevará a Rijkaard (via Lavanguardia.es)

GUARDIOLA TO REPLACE RIJKAARD

Rijkaard won't be at FcBarcelona next year. It's not official, as the season technically hasn't end yet, but all the press it's already talking about the newcomers. My preference would be a seasoned coach with a taste for ataccking soccer, something you don't find everyday.

Read at itv.com and everywhere on the net:

Reports emanating in Spain have revealed that Josep Guardiola will replace Frank Rijkaard as Barcelona coach in the summer.

The dream is over. Manchester Utd 1 - Fc Barcelona 0

It seems like the end of an era is coming as Barça will remain championshipless this year. Maybe it's a good time to start looking into the future and saying goodbye to the past. Ronaldinho is leaving, maybe Deco too.

Rijkaard doesn't seem very stable at his position and there's been talk about Mourinho.

Picture Sport.es

Tomorrow -and probably today, too-, everybody will star talking about replacements...It's the old end of the season tune again.


Match reviews:

-FCBarcelona.cat
-Uefa.com

Tonight's the night: Manchester Utd vs Fc Barcelona

Barça's last chance to win anything this year is being at the Champion's League Final. They seem to have trained hard:

Via BarçaTV

Good Luck Barça!! Força Barça!!

Manchester Utd - FcBarcelona 20:45 CET Old Trafford (Manchester) 29 April 2008

Links:

-Live results at uefa.com
-Watch online at rojadirecta.org

Manchester Utd - FC Barcelona 3 days left

Picture from sport.es

Barça and Manchester both lost their matches three days before they meet their season's fate at Old Trafford.

In the news:

Deportivo 2 - Fc Barcelona 0


Messi and co rested as Barca focus on Champions League

Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard took no risks ahead of Tuesday's massive Champions League semi-final with Manchester United, resting most of his stars in a 2-0 defeat at Deportivo La Coruna that all but gifts the title to Real Madrid.

Chelsea 2 - Manchester Utd 1

Ferguson stokes angry United´s sense of injustice

Sir Alex Ferguson is convinced Manchester United's sense of injustice at their 2-1 defeat against Chelsea will help carry them to the Premier League title.

(via Soccernews.com)
Technorati Tags: barça, manchester, liga, premier, champions league

Champions League Semis 1st leg. Fc Barcelona 0 - Manchester Utd 0. Lucky us!! Unlucky Ronaldo!!

Great review at UEFA Champions League page. You can get an overall feel of all things around and inside the match.

Link:

uefa.com - UEFA Champions League - Fixtures & Results

Sant Jordi

Happy Sant Jordi everyone!! Good Luck today!!

Related links:

- Lionel Messi
- Christiano Ronaldo
- FC Barcelona vs Manchester Utd.
- San Jordi / St. George (wikipedia)

FC Barcelona - Manchester Utd: The Barça Toons Promo

It's on wednesday and it'll be spectacular!!




Related links:

- FC Barcelona
- FC Barcelona on YouTube
- Matches online (via rojadirecta)
- UEFA Champions League

I'm back!!

Back to blogging about Barça! I'll probably keep this blog as a repository of FC Barcelona matches, and whenever is possible put the goals -probably from some YouTube videos-.

Let's begin with this: