Transfer of Alen Halilovic to FC Barcelona

FC Barcelona has reached an agreement with Dynamo Zagreb and Alen Halilovic for the transfer of the player to the Club for an initial amount of 2.2 million euros, which will increase as the player achieves the objectives of consolidating a position in the team.

The player, who will be18 on June 18th, will start out in Barça B. Halilovic has signed a contract for five seasons.

Born on June 18th in1996 in Dubrovnik (Croatia), Alen Halilovic is a left-footed attacking midfielder. After rising through the Dynamo Zagreb youth ranks, in the 2012/13 season he made his first team debut at the age of 16, playing 18 league matches and scoring two goals. He also got his first Champions League experience on October 24, 2012 in a 2-0 defeat at home to PSG in the group stage.

On June 10th in 2013 he appeared in his first full international in a friendly against Portugal, becoming the youngest player ever to play for Croatia. He was also named in the squad for three 2014 World Cup qualifiers, although he never came off the bench in any of those matches.

This season has seen him progress even further. He has played 19 games in the Croatian top flight, starting eight of them and scoring three goals. Dynamo Zagreb are runaway leaders in their domestic championship with an 11-point lead on second placed Rijeka.

Halilovic was also involved in Champions League qualifiers and matches in the Europa league group stage.

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FC Barcelona vs Atlético Madrid tickets are available

From Monday, March 24th at 10.00 AM and until Tuesday 25th at 7.00 PM, applications will be open via the club website for tickets for the Champions League quarter final second leg match with Atlético Madrid at the Vicente Calderón, to be played on April at 8.45 PM.

Applications are only open to club members and must be made using a form that will be made available in the Members section of the club website. Each member may apply for just one ticket although as many as four members may apply on the same form in order to be able to travel together.

FC Barcelona will be allocated 3,071 tickets for the game on April 9th, which cost 60 euros each. As usual, 85% of the tickets will be allocated to members (2,088) and supporters clubs (522), while the other 15% will be used for the club’s sporting, institutional and sponsorship commitments (461).

Applications will not be processed until the period has expired, and if the demand is greater than supply, then on Wednesday March 6th, a draw will be held before a notary for all of the registered applications. On that same day, the club will announce the result of the draw and charge the cost of the tickets.

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No one can stop Leo Messi

Leo Messi superpssed the longstanding record of 369 goals for FC Barcelona that Paulino Alcántara held for 80 years. Alcántara played for the Club from 1912 to 1927 and he scored a total of 142 goals in official matches and 227 goals.

With his hat-trick against Osasuna at the Camp Nou, Leo Messi took his goal for Barça to 371 and thus broke Paulino’s 369-goal record. The Argentinian, however, has scored 344 goals in official matches and 27 in friendlies.

It seems unbelievable, but the Argentinian has scored 21 hat-tricks, four ‘pokers’ (four goals in one match) and on one occasion he scored five goals in a single game.

Against Osasuna, one of his favorite victims, Messi has scored a total of 17 goals in the league, the same amount he’s scored against Atlético Madrid. He’s also netted twice against the Navarre team in the Cup.

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Mascherano trusts in FC Barcelona

Javier Mascherano insists: “We’re not dead and the team is still very much in the hunt for the League, Cup and Champions League titles. 

He also added: “We have a lead and we will try and take the maximum advantage of that. We’ll be true to our style of play. If we get back to our best, we have a chance of fighting for all three competitions".

Mascherano was also quick to defend the coach Gerardo Martino: “This is the first year I have worked with him. He’s a coach who has had to go through worse than two defeats in 15 days.

I think we both come from somewhere that things are much more dramatic than here.

“He has been in this job for 15 years and everything he has done, he’s done himself, nobody’s ever given him anything for free. He had to leave Argentina to make his name and he did it, went back and was a winner there too. We don’t underestimate him”.

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Applications for the Spanish Cup Final tickets are now available

From 10.00 on Thursday March 13 through to Monday March 17 at 7.00 pm, the Club members can make their applications for tickets to the Spanish Cup Final against Real Madrid(16 April at 9.30 pm), exclusively via the club website.

Sales are exclusively for club members and tickets must be purchased via a form that is available in the members section of the club website at www.fcbarcelona.cat. 

Each member may only apply for one ticket, but up to four members can apply on the same form, so that they can travel together. Membership number and password key which appear on the 2014 membership card will be required to make the application. Child members are excluded from this application process.

 All applications will be processed at the end of the established period. If there are more applications than tickets available, at 10.00 am on Wednesday March 19^th , a draw will be held at the Club in the presence of a notary between all applicant members. On 19^th , 20 and 21^st  March, the club will contact the lucky members, charge for the tickets and inform the how to collect them.

Applications will be considered as a definite intention to purchase and at the moment that the application is made, you will be required to introduce credit card information. 

Should the application be accepted, your card will automatically and immediately charged 45 Euros. The difference between this amount and the final price to be paid after your ticket has been selected must be paid at the ticket offices when you pick up the tickets. 

Ticket collection will be in the order of the winners in the draw.

The Club will have 19,350 tickets to distribute, with the rest being distributed by the Federation. As usual, 85% of these tickets will be made available to club members (16,448) and supporters clubs (3, 289), with the rest (2,903) going to sponsors and institutional and sporting commitments made by the club.

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Xavi Hernández supports a solidarity project

Xavi Hernández declared: “We’re feeling good. We’re top of the league, the Champions League game is on good course and we’re in the cup final” when speaking about the FC Barcelona first team’s current form. 

He was attending the presentation of the new Hospital de Dia Infantil project, to which he has made a gift, and explained that “we are in great form, the people are happy and we’re enjoying ourselves. We feel happy on the field”.

Xavi Hernández and his wife Núria Cunillera decided to donate their wedding gifts. The money will help to finance the new Hospital de Dia Infantil children’s facilities at the Sant Joan de Déu, which will have twice the capacity it does at present and will help to attend to patients with chronic illnesses using latest generation equipment and more comfortable facilities for the children and their families.

During the presentation of the new premises, which is also being supported by Obra Social ‘La Caixa’, the footballer said that “we are very excited about this project as we want to help the people that are most in need, namely children and their families”.

The Barça player decided to collaborate after learning about the case of a child who died of cancer at the hospital last year.

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Martino wants Barça to look forward

In the press conference after FC Barcelona’s 3-1 defeat to Real Sociedad, Gerardo Martino said that his team needs “to look forward” and that his approach to the match perhaps wasn’t the best: “I didn’t read the game correctly.”

The manager explained that “having three forwards implies that we wouldn’t be playing with four midfielders. I thought that it was better to line up a double pivot, with Song.” 

He added: “rotations are good when the results are positive.” When asked about his substitutions after Real had scored their third goal, the manager said that “we didn’t have the need to rethink our approach and when we decided to make our first sub, they scored the 3-1.”

Lastly, Martino, who was sent off at the break, said “I have nothing to say with respect to my expulsion, the referee made the decision.”

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The draw for Euro 16 is favourable for Spain and Netherlands

The draw for the qualification groups for the Euro 2016 was held this afternoon in Nice, France.

Vicente del Bosque’s team, the reigning champions of the competition, were placed in Group C along with Ukraine, Slovakia, Belorussia, Macedonia and Luxembourg. Afellay’s Netherlands were placed in Group A, with the Czech Republic, Turkey, Latvia, Iceland and Kazakhstan. 

Therefore, Piqué, Busquets, Iniesta, Pedro and company will feature in a total of ten matches between September 7^th 2014 and October 13^th 2015.

It’s worth noting that the top two teams of each group will qualify directly for the final stage of the tournament. The teams that finish third will go on to an additional qualifying round. 

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