Eleven FC Barcelona players have been nominated for the Onze d’Or (Onze Mondial European Footballer of the Year), the prize given by the French magazine ‘Onze Mondial’ to the eleven best players in the world. Valdés, Alves, Puyol, Piqué, Abidal, Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta, Cesc, Alexis, and Messi feature in the shortlist of 60 names. Fans have until June 7 to choose their favourite players and vote via this website.
The season’s ended for pretty much all the clubs. Not for Guardiola’s Barcelona, which has a chance to nab trophy no 14 on May 25. But the press has already moved on to more important matters in hand, which means only one thing – TRANSFER RUMOURS. Yes, if it was up to the press every bright star of a rival club could become a Barca player in the upcoming season. So it hardly comes as a surprise that the names of Gareth Bale, Iker Muniain, Robin Van Persie and Javi Martinez are being linked to Barca, given that all have played a vital role in the success of their respective teams this season.
According to Barcelona based paper Sport, Tito Vilanova will be in charge of a blaugrana squad next year with several new faces in it. The newly appointed coach for next season will not present any traumatic changes nor will he necessitate a revision of the plans designed by the sports directors. And the previous discussions between Pep, Zubizarreta and vice president Bartomeu have always relied on the involvement of Tito Vilanova.
There is a lot of work ahead, but the first steps have already been taken in decisive form. Building on rumours published in their paper several weeks ago, Sport strongly believes that La Masia graduate Jordi Alba is bound for Barça. The uncertainty of Eric Abidal’s availability in the upcoming season necessitates the need for a left-back even more. The circumstances for signing Alba seem ideal. The Valencia left back’s contract finishes in 2013 and the only thing remaining is to seal the transfer price of the player. A deal can be struck between the two clubs, or Alba could return to Barça in two seasons for free. Everything indicates that Barça and Valencia will agree to an amount to settle any contention that might arise.
According to FC Barcelona’s official website, right back Dani Alves has fractured his right collarbone during training on Wednesday. After various tests were conducted it was decided that the best form of treatment would be surgical, as reported by the Club’s Medical Services in a statement. The player will undergo the surgery this afternoon at the Hospital de Barcelona under the care of doctor Carles Torrens.
This Wednesday, the team led by Josep Guardiola held its second session this week preparing for the King’s Cup final on May 25th against Athletic Club de Bilbao at the Vicente Calderón stadium. Having finished all the other competitions, Barça has turned its full attention to this final challenge of the season.
Ibrahim Afellay has made the penultimate shortlist of Bert van Marwijk’s Netherlands squad for Euro 2012 despite spending most of the season recovering from a knee injury. Having returned to training pitch in April and given valuable minutes playing with Barca seems to have been enough to convince Vasn Marwijk that the 26-year-old player has recovered completely and is ready for the big competition. It was a belief shared by Pep Guardiola, who started the player in the match against Real Betis.
The 36-player list was further narrowed down to 27 with Afellay making the cut. The nine players to miss the trip to Ukraine and Poland are Urby Emanuelson, Hedwiges Maduro, Alexander Büttner, Jasper Cillessen, Ola John, Erwin Mulder, Nick Viergever, Stefan de Vrij and Georginio Wijnaldum. Afellay won’t be able to join his national teammates at the training camp in Lausanne, which begins today, due to club commitments – Barca take on Athletic Bilbao in Copa del Rey final on May 25. As a result, the player won’t be available for Holland’s friendly against FC Bayern München on May 22 and will miss the match against Bulgaria on May 26 too.
Ribéry: “Tactically, Chelsea is stronger than Barça”
“The ‘tactic’ of parking the bus and praying that the Virgin appears seems huge to me.”
Exclusive: we discover the Bernabeu’s defective toilet bowl
“Since I know Barça likes the theater a lot … I wish them lots of ‘crap’ for the cup final.”
The Sun, Rupert Murdoch-owned British tabloid, reports that Barca are considering to sign Chelsea forward Didier Drogba on a free transfer. The 34-year-old player from Ivory Coast, whose contract with the English club expires at the end of this season, was considered to be eyeing a move to China, United States or Milan even though Chelsea has offered him a two-year contract. But with Barca knocking on the doors, Drogba may reconsider given that Chelsea has to beat Bayern Munich at Allianz Arena to qualify for the Champions League next season as they only finished sixth in the Premier League behind Manchester City, Manchester United, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspurs and Newcastle United.
According to The Sun, La Liga club is willing to offer Drogba a two-year deal worth up to £5 million a season to say goodbye to Chelsea and share the locker room with the likes of Messi, Xavi and Iniesta. The publication also cites an unnamed Barcelona source to lend authenticity to the exclusive. “What the team needs is an attacking player who has the presence and strength to trouble defenders,” says anonymous “Drogba has that profile and is one of the players the club are looking at.”
TRANSFER YES OR NO?
Vilanova’s most complicated decision
In favour: His performance has dropped and the club could earn a big amount of money
Against: He is a unique and exclusive player who would be really hard to replace
Laporta: “Choosing Tito [as the coach] is a decision caused by panic”
Drogba offers himself to Barça. The club doesn’t seem to be willing to sign him but his contract ends in June and the player would lower his fee
“WATERGATE”
Is it really necessary to repair these bathrooms?
Florentino’s excuse, in doubt
MD takes pictures of Bernabéu’s bathrooms
Besides, the stadium will host 4 events after May 25th, when the Copa final will be played
Neymar and Alves, dilemmas for Tito
Former Barcelona B coach Luis Enrique, who joined as head coach of Italian club AS Roma last season, has confirmed that he will quit his job and take a year off. Enrique’s start in first-team coaching didn’t live up the lofty expectations that were set given that he had coached Barca B for three seasons. AS Roma suffered 14 defeats in Serie A, finished seventh in the league and therefore couldn’t secure a spot in the Europa League – enough for many to proclaim Enrique’s season a failure.
“I’m going because I’m tired, I’ve always given 110 percent but I don’t think I’m able to recover my strength before the beginning of next season,” said Enrique, a statement that echoed the mental state of departing Barca manager Pep Guardiola.”That’s also why I know I won’t coach anywhere else. I need to recover after this difficult but beautiful experience. I’ve used up all my energy to try to get results and I’m sorry that we didn’t manage to get third place.”
Alexis Sánchez’s return to group training was the big news emerging from Tuesday’s training session. The Chilean player, who picked up bruising to his left thigh during the Liga match against Rayo Vallecano (0-7), reappeared this afternoon, 15 days later, in the squad’s first training session following Saturday’s final league match of the season against Betis (2-2). Now, Barça can turn its full attention to the Copa del Rey final on May 25th.
FIRST DECISIONS
Tito Vilanova already works planning the team of the season 2012-2013
Negotiate the contract. He will sign a two years lasting contract and it will improve his current fee
Signings and transfers. After speaking with the players he will decide who will leave
Presentation on June. After speaking with Zubizarreta he will announce his collaborators
His model will be 4 – 3 – 3. He will avoid “messidependence” and reinforce the defence
Villa will not play the Eurocup
Rosell visited Abidal at the hospital
Van Persie is not willing to stay in Arsenal. Tomorrow he will announce it to the club.
It was revealed this weekend that FC Barcelona defender Eric Abidal may soon be discharged from the hospital where his recovery from a liver transplant is ongoing. Can you believe that Abidal’s operation was over a month ago? In fact, Abidal left the squad for his procedure on April 10, and has managed a very low profile ever since. But news has emerged in the last several days that indicates that the player’s recovery is evolving positively. Sport reported on Saturday that Abidal’s discharge may come as soon as this week, with his doctor, Ricard Pruna noting that his recovery has been “slow but steady.” Barcelona president Sandro Rosell apparently visited Abidal on Monday, declaring that the Frenchman was “very animated.”
Al of us at totalBarca wish Abidal the best in his continuing recovery. Stay tuned for further updates as they become available.
Andoni Zubizarreta, FC Barcelona’s Sporting Director for football, spoke recently on Esport3′s ‘Hat Trick’ program. During the show, the former Basque goalkeeper analyzed this past season, discussed Pep’s decision to leave and the appointment of Tito Vilanova, and he also spoke about the upcoming transfer window.
As for how the season has progressed, he began by noting that “we are obliged to always try for titles. We did very well in the Spanish Super Cup. We won the European Super Cup. The Club World Cup has also given us a lot. And later, there’s the [King's Cup] final, an occasion we still have to play, in the Liga we fought for the title with Madrid, and we won at their Stadium. The only thing lacking was the cherry on top [the finishing touch]. In the Champions, the elimination to Chelsea shows that football is unpredictable, full of surprises. This year we have not won these trophies. We hope to win the Copa.”
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