In a statement he made to sports network ESPN, Naor Malachi, the agent of Barcelona’s loaned-out striker Keirrison de Souza (21), said any move by the player to English Premier League side Liverpool is “highly unlikely” because he believes that the Brazilian player would get even fewer minutes at the Anfield club than at Benfica.

“Keirrison is having a difficult time at Benfica because (strikers) Cardozo and Saviola have been performing well. Even though he’s still young when he arrived at the club, he expected a lot more playing opportunities. I don’t think moving to Liverpool is going to change that because Liverpool is a very big club with very good strikers. The situation will just repeat itself.”

Malachi is also convinced that the player’s owner club will never agree to any such move: “Nor do I believe that Barcelona will agree to it. They want a club that can give Keirrison opportunities to play, and I have to say Liverpool is not that club.”

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Our TotalBarca.com Man of The Match leader takes the award again. This time he has accumulated 5 awards but sadly no Man of The Month Awards.

With a total of 507 votes:

Ibrahimovic 62%
Puyol: 7%
Valdes & Keita: 5% (both with 27 votes)

A recap of all awards given out:

Man of The Match awards: Ibrahimovic 5, Messi 4, Pedro 3, Keita 2, Valdes 2, Xavi 2, Puyol 1

Man of The Month Awards: Messi (September), Keita (October), Puyol (November)

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FC Barcelona’s injured striker Lionel Messi was seen today exercising, under the supervision of physiotherapist Juanjo Brau, on the beach in front of the Shangri-La hotel where the team is staying during the tournament. The Argentine with a bandage on his right ankle was doing rehabilitation exercises, at times with a beach volleyball, on the sand for an hour to strengthen the muscles of the affected area. The player is expected to train with the team this afternoon.

Messi’s training at the beach, with its soft and uneven surface, has been used as a way to assess the stability of his ankle and to further strengthen the injured joints, and is called ‘Proprioception exercises’.

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Speaking to the press entourage yesterday, FC Barcelona central defender and team captain, Carles Puyol said this Blaugrana team has already made history no matter what happens in the Club World Cup tournament.

“I believe the team has already made history but we always want more, and that is why we are here,” said the ambitious Spanish international. He confessed that the team is not “obsessed” with the only cup missing from the club’s trophy cabinet but insisted they came into the tournament “with a lot of desires and enthusiasm, considering that we already had a chance to win it but failed (2006). We hope it won’t happen again.”

Puyol lamented the long trip that the team’s flight had to take to reach Abu Dhabi, and said they felt physically and mentally worn out after spending unnecessary hours on the plane. Nevertheless, he is confident that the players have enough time to recover before their first match on Wednesday: “We are used to playing a lot of matches with barely enough time to rest and it is not something new for us.”

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Both Catalan sports papers, Sport and El Mundo Deportivo today carry as their main stories Barcelona’s assumed last ditch effort to sign Manchester City’s and former Real Madrid striker, Robinho (25). With a substantial number of the Catalan’s club big brass, including its president Joan Laporta convening in Abu Dhabi for the FIFA Club World Cup tournament, it is believed that some sort of meetings between them and the English team’s owners could be held in the next few days; a rumour that has been going on and off for months.

This rumour is further exacerbated with reports that Sheikh Mansour Zayed Al Nahyan, Manchester City’s owner will also be in the city for an oil producers meeting this week.

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ROBINHO, LAST ASSAULT

Barça and the Sheik owner of Manchester City will meet in Abu Dhabi to finalize or rule out the loan.

All the tickets to watch Barça’s match are sold out.

Messi trained alone on the beach and will be rested.

Puyol: ‘We’ve been waiting to win this trophy for some time’

Estudiantes - Pohang Steelers (17h)

Luxurious hotel for the azulgranas.

[Non Barça Related]

Catalan national team: 6 Barça players and Cesc are called by Cruyff to play against Argentina

Madrid: Casillas’ dip in performance is worrying and unsure if they need to sign a replacement for Pepe (6 months out).

‘WE CAN’T LOSE’

This is the message from Guardiola to his players.

A meeting with history: Barça has lost the two Club World Cup finals that they have played.

“Robinho’s operation” cools down. Last try to loan the player from Manchester City.

Catalan sports paper Sport reports that former Barcelona player Henrik Larsson (38) has been appointed as the coach of a Swedish second division team Landskrona. Larsson announced his retirement from the Swedish national team in October and now he starts new challenges in football. Speaking about his future with Landskrona in a press conference, Larsson said: “I feel very flattered. Landskrona is very interesting and ambitious club.” However, he recognizes the fact that he has limited coaching experience and he knows it: “The challenge will be difficult. But if you don’t take risks in your life, you never win.”

This is a featured post. Please scroll down for all the latest news.

It’s back… This is your chance to prove not only your knowledge about the game of football but also your psychological insight by cracking the code of Josep ‘Pep’ Guardiola’s master brain:

Predict Barcelona’s Starting Lineup
You can give your starting line-up until 3 hours before the start of the game against Atlante.

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Original article @ FIFA.com

Dani Alves: I’m very ambitious

Saturday 12 December 2009

Arriving at the start of the 2008/09 season, FC Barcelona player Dani Alves quickly became one of the stars of the Barcelona team, making an essential contribution on the right flank as the Catalans swept to a majestic treble.

The bubbly Brazilian full-back is gearing up for what he hopes will be yet another trophy surge this season, starting with the FIFA Club World Cup UAE 2009. All-conquering Barça make their bow in the tournament next Wednesday, and Alves spoke exclusively to FIFA.com about that challenge and what promises to be an exciting 2010 for club and country.

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This is a summary of the blog FC Barcelona 2010 where you can follow the built-up to the elections on a daily basis. You can click on the links to read the full story. You can read all episodes of this weekly here.

These are good times for polling agencies. The Barcelona board has ordered to carry out a poll among club members, which includes the evaluation of a series of current and former board members and gathers information about the approximately 40.000 club members who could vote for the first time next year. Sandro Rosell meanwhile held own polls that confirm that he is currently supported by over 50 per cent of the voters..

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Catalunya coach, Johan Cruyff, today unveiled his first squad ahead of the All-Catalan match against Argentina on December 22 at the Camp Nou which saw the presence of Arsenal’s Cesc Fabregas in a team mainly made up of FC Barcelona and RCD Espanyol players.

Interviewed by Catalan radio station RAC 1, Ajax Amsterdam’s Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez (22) said he is aware that he is being followed closely by FC Barcelona since last summer; an interest the player welcomed, acknowledging that he ”would not want to miss the opportunity to sign for Barcelona,” because “it has always been my dream to play for them.”

“The first time I came to Barcelona (City) was five years ago, I just love the city, and I like it more than Madrid,” he admitted, a statement that could be construed as to where his desires lie. He also revealed that former Barcelona player Gabri Garcia (his Ajax teammate) speaks well of Guardiola, about his mentality and his ambitions.

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Barça Atlètic have attained their eighth consecutive victory after beating Terrassa 4-0 with goals from Soriano, Armando and Thiago, as well as a ninth-minute own-goal from Canet.

Barça dominated from the outset, but Terrassa looked strong and prevented Barça from getting near the goalmouth.

Early goal

The first goal came in the ninth minute, when Terrassa player Canet put the ball into his own net after a cross from Jonathan Dos Santos.

A first-half fright

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Catalan sports paper Sport today reports that to ensure he can play a part in Barcelona’s conquest to win the Club World Cup for the first time, Lionel Messi is even continuing with his ankle sprain treatment while in-flight en-route to Abu Dhabi.

The Argentine player made a series of specific work outs supervised by the team medical staffs and physiotherapist, Juanjo Brau. Among other things, he was massaged on the affected area and performed stretching exercises. All this at almost 12,000 feet while his teammates were having a good night’s sleep, taking advantage of the many first-class facilities an aircraft of this type offers (a specially chartered Turkish Airlines plane).

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Speaking on Brazilian radio station ‘Record’ recently, FC Barcelona’s loaned-out defender Henrique Adriano Buss (23), has rejected any suggestion of his possible return to Brazil after the interest shown by Corinthians was made public.

Currently playing with Spanish Primera Liga club Racing Santander, the player said he was surprised by the interest, and insisted that he still has a contract with the Catalan club and “wants to continue with his European adventure.”

“I think it is too soon for me to return now. Nevertheless, I am going to analyse everything calmly so I can make the correct decision,” he acknowledged.

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JUST A STEP AWAY FROM (BECOMING A) LEGEND

Pep’s Barça aspire to win their sixth title so they can conclude a historical year.

The coach is thinking about resting Messi in the match against Atlante in order to play him in the final.

They arrived exhausted to UAE after an 11 hour trip.

[Non Barça Related]

Espanyol: Indignation with Iturralde and there will be an appeal for Baena.

Madrid: Pepe, 6 months KO. Some people say Madrid will buy Otamendi in the winter market as the substitute.

WELCOMED AS HEROES (salam aleikum)

Barça, after a marathon trip, arrived at Abu Dhabi.

To win the sixth cup! Puyol wants to conclude this perfect year for Barça by winning the cup.

While it is widely reported that FC Barcelona has no objection to any future move made by Keirrison (21), news coming out of Portugal has now accelerated that rumours.

Portuguese news agency, ‘Lusa’ yesterday claimed that Benfica, the club where the Brazilian is loaned-out to, is interested in signing another Brazilian striker, Alan Kardec (20), of Vasco da Gama – currently playing for Internacional de Porto Alegre on loan – which the report believed will facilitate the early departure of Keirrison.

And according to Portuguese sports daily ‘A Bola’, the deal is about to be concluded pending “a few bureaucratic details”.

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