FC Barcelona News
Messi wins FIFA Ballon d’Or for 4th year running
January 8th, 2013Our congratulations to Lionel Messi, who has become the first ever player to win the FIFA Ballon d’Or four times after being crowned the 2012 winner yesterday. What adds to the magnitude of the achievement is that those awards were won on the trot.
Messi was up against Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo and team mate Andrés Iniesta, who came second and third. Last year Messi created a new record for goals scored in a calendar year, beating Gerd Müller’s long standing record, which perhaps made the choice automatic for many voters.
Barça to face Man Utd at Gothenburg tonight
August 8th, 2012FC Barcelona faces Manchester United tonight in Gothenburg, in a rerun of the Champions League finals of 2009 and 2011. While Barça won both times, Wayne Rooney has been quoted by the FCB website as saying that the result wasn’t as important as enjoying the match and getting fir for the start of the new season.
The match kicks off at 20:00 tonight and will be shown by TV3 in Catalonia. Check out local television schedules to watch the match live.
Tito takes control
July 18th, 2012Tito Vilanova was filmed at his first day’s training session as head coach yesterday at FC Barcelona’s training ground. The short video shows Tito’s arrival and the squad, including Lionel Messi, greeting each other before warming up and knocking the ball around a bit.
Watch the video below:
Barça well represented in Euro 2012 winning squad
July 2nd, 2012Well, the Spanish selection did it again! Spain beat Italy 4-0 in the Euro 2012 final the third title in a row after Euro 2008 and the 2010 World Cup.
Once again FC Barcelona was well represented in the selection with Gerard Pique, Andres Iniesta, Cesc Fabregas, Xavi, Busquets, and new signing Jordi Alba starting and Pedro Rodríguez brought on as sub; Alba, who signed for Barça last week, scored the second goal.
Barça captain Carles Puyol attended the final after missing the competition through injury; last month he underwent knee surgery from which he is still recovering. Alongside him was David Villa, who has been out of action since breaking his leg in the Clubs World Cup in Japan last December; Villa is Spain’s leading scorer of all time.
It is currently unknown whether they will be fit in time for the summer fixtures already announced. Both the Gamper Trophy and Nou Camp leg of the Spanish Supercup are scheduled for August. You can see prices and availability for all FC Barcelona tickets on the home page.
FC Barcelona tickets now on sale for August matches
June 29th, 2012Simply Barcelona Tickets now has tickets available for the Gamper Trophy and the Nou Camp leg of the Spanish Supercup in August.
The Gamper Trophy is an competition played each August at the Nou Camp that this year sees Italian club Sampdoria as guests. The date marks the 20th anniversary of Sampdoria’s defeat at the hands of Barça in the 1992 Champions League final, played at Wembley.
Two or three days later comes the Spanish Supercup, which will see another clasico. This time Tito Vilanova will be in the driving seat against Jose Mourinho, but you can expect fireworks from the Portuguese coach all the same. The two had a bust up last year, when Mourinho attacked Vilanova, pushing his thumb into the Catalan’s eye.
The date and time of this match will be confirmed at a later date, but you can buy tickets for both matches here.
Tito Vilanova takes over as Barça boss [video]
June 22nd, 2012Tito Vilanova took over from Pep Guardiola last week and appeared at a press conference to mark the start of the new era. In the video above Tito talks (translated from Catalan).
FC Barcelona Tickets – August 2011
July 4th, 2011We’re still in that awkward point of the year between the end of one season and the start of the next. And while this time last year we had the World Cup in South Africa to keep us entertained, this year there is little but transfer rumours to keep us occupied.
Luckily the fixture list for the Spanish League will be drawn later this month – I don’t yet know the exact date yet – and as soon as I have details I’ll send you an email!
Summer Fixtures 2011
Barça is off to America for a short series of matches and when they return it’s for the Spanish Supercup. This year they face Real Madrid and you can book the first leg in Madrid (August 14th) and the second leg in Barcelona (August 17th) from the website; and they also play an as yet undecided team in the Gamper Trophy on August 22nd.
Transfer Rumours
Talking of transfer rumours, for FC Barcelona that naturally means Cesc Fabregas, who has a long held ambition to return to Barça; he was brought up in the club’s youth academy along side Leo Messi and Gerard Pique and the president of FC Barcelona, Sandro Rossell, seems to be going out of his way to make that happen.
I keep reading that he’ll be signed by this date or that, but it hasn’t come to fruition yet. The other player being linked to Barcelona is Alexis Sanchez, who is also being linked to Man Utd.
However, is a new midfielder or winger what Barcelona needs right now? If I were looking for players I think I’d be looking to strengthen the defence.
Carles Puyol is a great player but years of giving his all for Barcelona are taking their toll and he was out for a good chunk of the season with a knee injury, and when he’s not playing his absence really felt. While I certainly hope that his recent knee operation will allow him to play at the start of the season there is no guarantee that he will be match fit for the entire season.
OK, that’s enough of my armchair analysis, happy Independence Day to all US readers and speak soon to all!
Catalonia’s national day leaves nothing to celebrate for Barça
September 13th, 2010Catalonia’s national day is celebrated on September 11th every year to commemorate Barcelona’s defeat during the War of the Spanish Succession in 1714. Throughout the region the Catalan red and yellow flag is displayed everywhere and Barcelona in particular is in a party mood.
However, that was shattered on Saturday evening when Hercules faced FC Barcelona in Barça’s first home match of the new season. The La Liga newcomers weren’t going to lie down and hand the game to the Catalans, which was not expected at all.
Even with Villa, Messi and Bojan and the front they struggled to make any impact on the visitor’s defence and when the first goal of the match came, it was scored by Valdez for Hercules. That at least made Barça wake up a bit and redouble their efforts on the Hercules goal. Pique came close to scoring in the 34th minute but the ball failed to find its target.
Pep Guardiola brought on Xavi and Pedro at half time who went for the Hercules goal in the 47th minute, although the ball went over the cross bar. And when Valdez scored his second goal in the 58th minute it was all over for Barça, who looked ragged through desperation and tiredness.
0-1 Valdez (min 26)
0-2 Valdez (min 58)
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | |
|
1
|
Atlético Madrid |
2
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
6
|
1
|
6
|
|
2
|
Valencia |
2
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
4
|
1
|
6
|
|
3
|
Sevilla |
2
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
4
|
1
|
4
|
|
4
|
Real Madrid |
2
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
4
|
|
5
|
Villarreal |
2
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
4
|
1
|
3
|
|
6
|
Getafe |
2
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
5
|
4
|
3
|
|
7
|
Barcelona |
2
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
3
|
2
|
3
|
|
8
|
Hércules |
2
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
2
|
1
|
3
|
|
9
|
Real Sociedad |
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
3
|
|
10
|
Málaga |
2
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
6
|
6
|
3
|
|
11
|
Athletic Bilbao |
2
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
2
|
2
|
3
|
|
12
|
Espanyol |
2
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
3
|
5
|
3
|
|
13
|
Sporting Gijón |
2
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
2
|
4
|
3
|
|
14
|
Deportivo |
2
|
0
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
|
15
|
Almería |
1
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
|
16
|
Osasuna |
2
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
|
17
|
Zaragoza |
2
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
3
|
5
|
1
|
|
18
|
Mallorca |
2
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
2
|
1
|
|
19
|
Racing Santander |
2
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
0
|
4
|
0
|
|
20
|
Levante |
2
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
2
|
8
|
0
|
World Cup fever
June 21st, 2010Well it looks like England is in a right mess, but certainly not as bad as France. Switzerland beat a Spanish side full of Barça players, so it’s hardly like they aren’t used to playing together. And what happened with Italy against New Zealand?
So far the world cup seems to have underwhelmed most people with football that lacks any kind of excitement – at least on the pitch as off the pitch there are vuvuzelas, confrontations between trespassing fans and David Beckham, players refusing to train and the advent of 3D television (BTW, is it any good?)…
Is this really world class?
But then again I think of Brazil against the Ivory Coast, which certainly lacked no passion, and it definitely was. And Argentina under Maradona – national team of Leo Messi – seem to be doing ok with 1-0 win over Nigeria and a much more convincing 4-1 victory over North Korea and tomorrow a match against Greece.
Anyway, when the circus is over we’ll be back to the domestic competitions, which of course includes La Liga. The draw will take place sometime in mid-July, although I currently don’t have a firm date for it – that’s life in Spain.
As soon as I know I’ll email everyone on the list with dates and prices.
However, FC Barcelona v Sevilla has been confirmed at the Nou Camp on 21/22 August. Matches in Spain are finalised a few days before the match so we can’t be more specific than that at the moment so if you want tickets you can order them now, but make sure you’re here for both of those dates:
Sandro Rosell voted Barça president
June 14th, 2010FC Barcelona’s presidential elections took place yesterday with Sandro Rosell the clear winner on 61% of the vote.
With Joan Laporta’s time in office over after a staggeringly successful time in the role, it is perhaps surprising that Rosell had such support; he was for a time Laporta’s right hand man until they spectacularly fell out.
But maybe it was because he was responsible for bringing Ronaldinho to the club; or simply because it has been clearly had his sights on the presidency for several years and was considered the natural successor.
In his victory speech he said “I want a Barça that will recapture the world’s imagination” – I’m neither pro nor anti Rosell, but that sounds like the biggest load of guff I’ve heard for a long time; Barça already capture the world’s imagination, that’s one of the reasons that we have several thousand people signed up for our mailing list and why people from all over the world buy tickets from us.
And he goes on with more guff; “one that unifies and does not separate while being committed to the country and to the causes of solidarity”.
One of Rosell’s priorities will be to ensure that Pep Guardiola stays as coach. He will also need to finalise the long expected deal with Arsenal to bring Cesc Fabregas to the club that Laporta got under way. The English press is reporting that a deal has gone on behind the scenes involving Rosell.
When he takes over on July 1st it’s at a club that is in pretty good shape. As well as winning the Spanish League he should find the club’s finances are looking much healthier than those of many; Real Madrid and Valencia spring to mind.
Just as well, since he plans on a €150 million development of the area around the Nou Camp rather than remodel the façade of the stadium. Time will tell how he gets on.
