Douglas close to signing with Barcelona

The signing of Douglas (Douglas Pereira dos Santos) is a done deal and director general Antoni Rossich, director of football Raúl Sanllehí and Barcelona representative Andre Curry have flown to Brazil to sign the player from São Paolo.

The 24 year old right back may be the last player that Barça signs unless they have any more plans up their sleeve before the FIFA ban comes into action.

The agreement is said to be in the region of between €6m and €8m for the defender and the club still have time to loan him out if the need be. However, if Barça should want him to stay, Douglas would be handy to bolster the Catalan defense.

As we mentioned above, Barcelona’s top executives are in Brazil to seal the deal for the 24 year old right back.

Douglas joined Brazilian club Goiás Esporte Clube in 2008 and after 64 appearances and 5 goals, left them to join São Paolo in 2012. He has played 69 times for the club, finding the net 4 times.

After Barcelona’s win start to the season with a 3-0 win over Elche, Luis Enrique’s new Barça are looking like they mean business this year after a disastrous last year under ex coach Tata Martino.

Obviously Barcelona have changed the way they go about signings now and are looking outside soccer school of La Masia youth academy while still embracing it as shown by the inclusion of Munir, who seems to be enjoying his new found stardom at the moment.

FCBEscola opens in Sao Paulo

The FCB Escola is a soccer schools model based on FC Barcelona’s philosophy, aimed at children from 6 to 11 years old and whose main objective is the integral training of the students, based on two ideas: teaching the players the basics of soccer so they can successfully face up to the sporting challenges they might face in the future and transmitting the values that represent FC Barcelona: tolerance, respect, solidarity, friendship, fair play, integration, effort and happiness.

The international soccer camps are held in USA, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Italy, India, Croatia, Slovenia, China, Japan and Brazil amongst others.

The FCBEscola project is continuing its international expansion and has just opened its second centre in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

After the first academy was set up in Rio de Janeiro one year ago, the second has now opened its doors for the first time in Sao Paulo. Training started this week with 400 pupils. The venue is the World Sports Arena in the city and the head coach is FCBEscola Barcelona trained Domènec Guasch.

The recent months have been a busy time and the response from the people of Sao Paulo has been extraordinary. More than 1,000 children took the entrance trials, although only 400 have been lucky enough to get a place, roughly the same number that attend the sister school in Rio de Janeiro. But a new admission procedure is set to commence in a few months’ time.

All in all, this project is another major step forward in the consolidation of FCBEscola on an international scale. The idea behind FCB Escola is to teach as many young people as possible using a tried and tested methodology to ensure quality and excellence. There are currently more than 3,000 boys and girls learning to play football the Barça way.

Barcelona future is promising based on emerging young talent

Barcelona has been known for producing world class players from their famous youth soccer academy, La Masia. With some games in which Barça have started the match with all 11 players coming from their famed youth academy.

The Catalans future still seems as bright as ever, and the production line of youth talent has already produced some very promising players.

Barcelona ‘B’, a squad made up completely of youth academy players, had an incredible season last year and managed to finish 3rd in the Segunda division.

During the preseason, Barca have showcased these players in order to give them some playing time in the first team. They certainly didn't disappoint and will likely give Luis Enrique some headaches when he decides his starting eleven and will also look to ease some of these players into the first team and give them as much time as possible.

Denis Suarez and Gerard Deulofeu have left the Camp Nou on loan to Sevilla in order to get some first team experience along with 23-year-old Cristian Tello also went out on loan to FC Porto. The loan attempts to give the players the opportunity to gain some much needed experience on the field rather than watching from the bench.

Munir el Haddadi is another exciting prospect coming from the La Masia production line. The 18-year-old forward is currently Barca's leading goalscorer in preseason, managing to notch four goals.

The list of talented youth coming from Barça soccer academy are Adama Traore’s, Sergi Samper, Alen Halilovic, other more defensive players such as Edgar Ie, Bagnack and Grimaldo all have incredibly bright futures and will all likely have stints with the first team.

It will be an interesting season for Barcelona, as the newly renovated squad will look to reinstate their European dominance and it will also be interesting to see whether the transfer ban will be imposed on the Blaugrana. One things for sure however, the future is very bright for Barcelona and their youngsters.

Barcelona beats Elche 3-0 with goals from Messi and Munir

The headlines will belong to Munir and a reinvigorated Messi but this was a fluid performance from Barca with former Barcelona midfielder and idol Luis Enrique had his name chanted by the Nou Camp, and handed five players their first league starts for the club: new signings Claudio Bravo, Jeremy Mathieu and Ivan Rakitic, plus soccer academy graduates Rafinha Alcantara and Munir.

The game was interrupted in the first minute due to a black cat that raced onto the pitch, but Barça soon took control of the play, demonstrating that Enrique is just as keen on his side dominating possession to dizzying levels as his predecessors were.

The first attempts came from Rakitic who failed to hit the target, and then Munir just within inches of scoring this first ever goal at the Nou Camp midway through the first half, his effort vas applauded by the fans behind the goal.

It was then Andres Iniesta's turn to rattle the bar, while Dani Alves and Lionel Messi both saw their shots miss the target.

Barca finally got the goal they deserved a few minutes before the break. Busquets intercepted a sloppy pass from an Elche defender and then Messi, who needed just one touch to bring the ball under control before sweeping it into the bottom corner with his left foot.

But, Barça had a setback just one minute after scoring, Mascherano was sent off with a red card for bringing down Garry Rodrigues when he was clean through on goal.

Enrique responded sacrificing forward Rafinha in favour of defender Marc Bartra immediately after the break, but his attacking players reacted even more effectively to ensure Barca were in no danger of losing their lead after going a man down.

The second goal came from Rakitic, who played a long ball over the top towards Munir, who waited patiently for it to drop and flicked it into the far corner of the net.

Messi’s second goal, and third of the match, arrived a quarter of an hour after Munir's, was the finest move of the night. The Argentinian attacked down the right and shrugged off four Elche defenders to bring the ball onto his favored left boot and drive it low into the bottom corner.

Jari Litmanen only has good words for FC Barcelona

Barça TV and fcbarcelona.com took the opportunity to interview Jari Litmanen, who was at Barça from 1999 to 2001, and played alongside Luis Enrique and Xavi Hernández, now FCB coach and captain.

Litmanen said that “Barça always have great teams, and right now they’ve got the best two players in the world, Messi and Neymar”. 

But he reckons it’ll take time before we can pass judgement on Barça 2014/15, with so many changes following the departures of Valdés, Puyol, Cesc and Alexis.

Thinking back to his years in an FCB shirt, Litmanen said “it was the centenary year, so it was all very special. It’s a fantastic club but I suffered a lot of injuries and was only there for a short while.”

Litmanen ended by saying that Barça’s visit “is very important for Finland and Helsinki. Barça is one of the biggest and best teams in the world. 

The people are happy and a lot of them were waiting for the team’s arrival. I am happy too that Barça are here”.

The World Meeting of Supporters Clubs will be held in August 18th

On Monday, 18th August,  is the final day of the XXXVII World Meeting of Supporters Clubs and the XXXV World Congress of Supporters Clubs. 

It will be a day with plenty of things going on at the Camp Nou.

From 9:00 am, supporters club members can sign up for the second day of Congress, specifically the institutional day, to be held in the Palau de Congressos of Catalunya from 10:00 am.

FC Barcelona’s president, Josep M. Bartomeu, and other members of the board, as well as fellow board members and some of the new members of the football first team, will be in attendance. The session will review current affairs at the club and also present all future projects. 

The gala lunch will bring the Congress to a close, and is sure to bring plenty of celebrations, emotions and also hopes for a great new season.

Youngsters will be able to enter the third edition of our video games competition in the Auditori 1899. Every entrant will get two tickets for the Gamper match between FC Barcelona and Mexico’s Club León, and there will be top prizes for the winners.

There will also be souvenir gifts for the clubs attending, which will be the closing event of the XXXVII World Meeting of Supporters Clubs. Then, it will take place the official presentation of Luis Enrique’s new-look Barça. And after that, it will be time to play the game with Club León.

The registration form will be available until August 10th.

March break 2015 Training in Barcelona!

It is 25 years since Ronald Koeman made his debut for FC Barcelona

Today is the 25th anniversary of Ronald Koeman’s debut for FC Barcelona, in the 1989 preseason, in a match played in Holland.

Ronald Koeman will always be present in the minds of Barcelona fans, thanks to the goal he scored which won FC Barcelona’s first ever European Cup, at Wembley in 1992. 

Koeman made his Barça debut on August 1, 1989, in his own country, in a preseason tour match with his new team against amateur side VV Buitenpost. 

The Dutch defender, who only played the first half, scored two trademark goals, with two strikes from outside the area, and showed from the very beginning his authority in his dialogue with his teammates.

The other Barça goals were scored by Laudrup (3), Geli (2), Eusebio, Almagro, Onesimo, Julio Salinas, Valverde, Begiristain, Soler and Milla. 

Koeman was a key player in defence for the Dream Team. Everyone remembers his great long passes, his powerful shots and his infallibility in free kicks and penalties. Koeman left the club in 1995, having scored 102 goals. 

Official FC Barceona soccer programs in Guelph.