At today’s lunchtime press conference at the Ciutat Esportiva, Pedro Rodríguez expressed his pleasure at winning the league title, as it is a mark of consistency across the entire year and the effort that the team exerted, although he would have liked to have given more.

About the possibility of reaching the 100 points record through the last three remaining games, he echoed the sentiments of his teammate Jordi Alba by saying, “the 100 point record is a motivation for us and an objective we have in mind. We know it will be difficult because the other teams we are playing are still playing for things – but we intend to try.”

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Mundo Deportivo published several articles today about possible transfers for next season. Read our overview of all the transfer rumours after the jump.

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El Pivote (The Pivot) is a totalBarça column by Anoop Jethwa, a fully licensed coach in UK, about the trials and tribulations of FC Barcelona. From the positives to the negatives, this piece will dive deep into the living fabric that is blaugrana. We welcome your thoughts and feedback in the comments section.

El Pivote is taking a look at the transfers that may or may not occur this summer, the value of stats and science versus an eye for talent and overall what history can and should tell Zubizarreta about players joining Barcelona.

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In the last two weeks, the calm before the storm of Champions League matches and Clásicos, both club officials and media have begun to look towards the summer and the 2013/14 season in earnest. Sporting Director Andoni Zubizaretta flew to New York last Monday to meet with Vilanova and discuss plans for the future. Since then, the rumors have been flying fast and furious.

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Rumours of Santos forward and Brazilian superstar Neymar (20) arriving in Barcelona this summer are growing more persistent. Catalan daily Sport reported recently that an FC Barcelona director and one of Neymar’s sponsors have both confirmed a deal in place for the 2013-14 season. The young Brazilian could arrive as early as July 2013, after the Confederations Cup has finished. for a transfer fee rumored to be between 30 and 40 million Euros. Read more about Barcelona’s potential next big signing after the break.

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The globally famous World Soccer magazine yesterday evening handed out their 2012 awards, a tradition that began 30 years ago.  This year the scoring system had a fresh dimension as votes from both readers and independent experts were weighted exactly 50/50.  With a combined percentage of 47.33% Lionel Messi was the clear winner of the 2012 Player of the Year, beating Cristiano Ronaldo (19.01%) and Andres Iniesta (9.77%) by significant margins.  Reported Barça target Neymar finished 6th with 3.6% while club legend Xavi Hernandez earned 1.78%.  The website also displays a breakdown of the voting.  40.13% of readers voted for Messi while 54.54% of experts wrote down his name.  This is Lionel Messi’s 3rd time claim to the award (2009 and 2011), making him only the second player ever, along with the original Ronaldo, to be bestowed the honor thrice.  The magazine also named winners in the categories of Team and Manager.

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Lionel Messi is a gift of many sorts.  Yet, do we rely too much on him?  In this edition of We’ve got mail, a long-time culé shares with us his view on the advantages and disadvantages of what could happen if we rely too much on our #10, once again.

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What would the world be without football transfer rumours. A drab one for the tabloids for certain. Barca manager Pep Guardiola again finds himself being linked to a move to England with multi-millionaire Roman Abromovich convinced that the 41-year-old Catalan is the man for his club, Chelsea. How he intends to pursuade Guardiola to leave his childhood club? By making sure that Guardiola doesn’t have to worry about money come retirement. According to Daily Mail, the Russian businessman will offer Guardiola a contract worth £40 million over four years. With that offer, Guardiola could become the highest-paid manager in football.

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Rumors emerging today on the website of Guillem Balague [and confirmed in Tuesday's Revisita de la Liga broadcast] suggest that FC Barcelona may have been busy behind the scenes at the Club World Cup. Balague reports that Neymar has agreed to personal terms with Barcelona and that money has already changed hands in the deal. Sandro Rosell has allegedly paid 10 million Euros to Santos in order to secure the services of Neymar sometime before 2014. If the details of the deal are to be believed, Santos will owe Barcelona 20 million Euros if they decide to send the player elsewhere. The total operation, likely to be finalized after the upcoming World Cup in Brazil, will be worth 60 million Euros.

Independent of the merits of Neymar and how he would fit into the culture of Barcelona, this signing would be a coup for Rosell as the player is highly coveted by Florentino Pérez at Real Madrid. Despite having signed a “pre-contract” with the team from the Capitol, some of Neymar’s recent declarations in the press indicate that his heart may be in favor of a move to Catalonia where he would be reunited with his good friend Dani Alves. Indeed, As.com is reporting on Tuesday that Neymar personally asked Pep Guardiola to “take me to Barcelona” in the aftermath of the CWC final.

“Barcelona have fantastic players. They are the best team in the world and were far superior. Today we learned how to play futbol.”

Source: Sport • Image: Eduard Omedes

Tomorrow’s match (19:30 Japan standard time, GMT+9) pitching FC Barcelona and Santos is billed as the face-off between Messi and his usurper Neymar. How many times have we heard something similar? Messi against this and that player, and we know what the outcomes were time and again. But this time, this Brazilian kid could be the real thing, and if Pele’s comment about him being better than Messi carries any weight, he will be a spectacle to watch. His opening goal against Kashiwa Reysol the other day certain was.

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Brazilians ruled the earth approximately 4.9 million minutes ago (2002 A.D.) after a well-documented and ferocious battle with the ruthless and lightning-fast Germans in what is known today as Yokohama, Japan. While neither of those giants was wiped from the face of the Earth, the world has certainly turned and football has evolved at the hands – or feet – of the Spanish. Like prehistoric fish marching onto land, the vestiges of Luis Aragnones’ Euro-conquering side of 2008 have only evolved into something more impressive with the likes of Vicente del Bosque and Pep Guardiola at the helms of the Spanish national team and FC Barcelona, respectively.

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FC Barcelona forward and Argentina captain Lionel Messi (24) can not seem to stop breaking records. Just hours after qualifying for his third FIFA Club World Cup final, World Soccer Magazine announced Messi shattered a recent reader’s poll record for World Player of the Year by stealing 60.2 percent of the vote. The magazine’s annual contest has not seen numbers like that since Michel Platini garnered 54 percent of the vote back in 1984.

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Brazilian attacker Neymar, who plies his trade at Santos, recently spoke with FIFA.com regarding the 2014 World Cup which will be held in Brazil, what it means to be a member of the Brazilian National Team and also about his club Santos’ impending encounter with Champions League winners FC Barcelona. This transfer season, Neymar has been one of the names repeatedly linked with a move to the Catalan club. Following are some excerpts from the interview. The original interview can be found here.

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“I am a little afraid that if Neymar ends up in Madrid then the same thing will happen like what’s happened to Kaka. Neymar is different, here he is the best player. There, there are many great players together, and I do not know if he would be free enough on the pitch. Neymar is a crack, a player who improvises. You never know what he will do, he is unpredictable. He decides in seconds. And Mourinho is a very tactical coach, who does not want to let the opponent play, to occupy the spaces … I have doubts how that relationship would work between Neymar and Real Madrid. If there is a team that has his image and style then he would have to choose Barcelona. Imagine Neymar and Messi together.“

Santos manager, Muricy Ramalho, does not mince his words about which club he thinks would best suit his player’s precarious talents.

With transfer rumours the order of the day in all the tabloids, Padraig at totalBarça pauses to reflect on players that can genuinely improve on perfection.

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According to Spanish newspaper Sport, Keirrison da Souza Carneiro (21) is just a step away from completing a move to Brazilian team Santos. A final agreement can be sealed within the next few hours as Santos reportedly offered 2.8 million euros for the Brazilian striker, plus a purchase option for Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior (18).

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