FC Barcelona - Visca Barca, Visca Catalunya

And the Winner is...

...FC Barcelona! The Liga BBVA Champion has also won the UEFA Champions League this Season. Luis Enriques Team has managed to win over the Seria A Champion Juventus Turin in a stunning Final with 1:3!

70.442 Fans had witnesst this Final in the Olympiastadion in Berlin. Ivan Rakitic was able to score an early goal in the 4th minute to bring Barcelona in front with clinical finish.
Barcelona were totally in control of the game and Juventus really struggled to keep up with Barcelona over the first 45 minutes, but were lucky to not conceed another goal in the first half!
Arturo Vidal was also really lucky to even be on the pitch after even 15 minutes, as he had made severel fouls that were worthy of beeing sent off!

The second half started with a bang, as Alvaro Morate, a young star who came out of the Real Madrid Castilla, scored against his former rivals to even the odds.
From then on Juventus were able to compete on Barcelonas level.
The game developed to an open clash between two good teams and from any minute on Juventus were getting stronger and stronger.
And then it happend...
...Luis Suarez scored the leading goal in the 69th minute and Barcelona again looked like they're going to win this Final.
Juventus threw everything in they had to turn this game around again.
In the final seconds they had a great chance and Barcelona started a picture perfect counter attack, which Brazilian Wonderkid Neymar jr used to score the final result of 3:1!

The game wasn't started again and the Barcelona Team were celebrating in front of their fans!

What will Luis Enrique do?

The Barcelona Fan Favourit has won every title the Fans desire to win in his first Season!
What is next for him? What is his next goal? And how can he motivate himself to achieve success like this year after year?



Luis Enriques future will be decided after the upcoming presidential vote in a few days.
Current President Josep Maria Bartomeu wants to keep Luis Enrique in the case he will remain the President, but in the case Joan Laporta wins, he promised to the fans that he will bring back the best Manager in Barcelona History...
...Pep Guardiola!

Players want Lucho to stay

The presidential elections in the upcoming will show who will claim the Power at the most succesful football club of the last Season. The change of Power might to a change of the Staff, like a new Manager or a new Director of Football.

Luis Enrique was the last years treeble winning Manager for FC Barcelona, but rumors are spreading that after the upcoming presidential elections Luis Enrique will have to step aside and that Pep Guardiola will take over Barcelona again, as Joan Laporta wants to bring the Barca Legend as he promised at his last official interview.
Luis Enrique hasn't had his say about this matter, but loads of Barcelona players made a public statement regarding their managers future and some of their opinions are surprising.

New Barcelona captain Andres Iniesta for example said

"...I would love to play for Pep again, he made me the player I am right now and I've to thank him for his efforts for the rest of my life! Lucho is our manager right now and I don't want you to think, that I would replace him with anyone! He is making a great job and we developed ourselfs as a Team thanks to his Ideas.
Lucho is the Manager we needed after Peps departure and Titos Death.

Gerard Pique tweeted last night

Pep is the greatest, but we have and need Lucho! Hopefully someday, both of them are at Barcelona!

As you can see, Lucho is highly reputated by his player and they want him to be their manager. Pep Guardiola has a hugh history at this club, but the players wants to bring on the development of their playing style under Luis Enriques reign.

Not only Iniesta and Pique had their say about Luis Enrique. The biggest surprise of the last year Ivan Rakitic said that

Luis was able to bring some new aspects into the Barcelona Team and I have to thank him for making me a vital part of the Team and bringing me in to replace Xavi! I now it is not possible to replace Xavi, as he is probably the best central midfielder in History and not only Barcelonas history, I mean ever!

Not every Barcelona player would choose Luis Enrique over Pep Guardiola, star striker and 4 times Balon D'Or winner Lionel Messi said on his first press-conference for over 12 months and said

I have to say that I would love to work with Pep again, he brought me to this level, like he did with Andres, Xavi or Carles. Pep is the best Manager in the world and I always want to work with the best in their area. To work with Lucho is great, but I have to admit that working with Pep is on a different level for me.
I don't want anyone to sack Lucho he is doing some extraordinary work, just that everyone know that and I would also be happy if he stays!

A new Director of Football?

Roberto Fernandez was just signed as the new Director of Football in Jauary this year, after Andoni Zubizaretta was sacked by the board.
Fernandez just only seemed to be in a caretaking role, as he is about to leave Barcelona after only 6 months of work.



A replacement was found by former Fan-favourit Eric Abidal! Abidal was part of the Barcelona of 6 Titles.
Abidal always wanted to retire with Barcelona, but former President Sandro Rosell denied Abidal a new contract. Rosell is not a part of Barcelona for a few months so now it seems possible that Abidal wants to be back in Barcelona, as he has a lot of friends in Barcelona like Dani Alves.

Looking forward to this story. Really want to see how a club like Barcelona progresses with a change

Best of luck

kingpin_blue I hope that my story will enjoy you over the time! And welcome to this side!

jer thanks, bud

Bartomeu presents new signing!

Josep Maria Bartomeu is about to held a press-conference to present Barcelonas new signings for the upcoming Season. It has to be said that non of the new signings can play in any match until the 01.01.2016 due to Barcelonas transfer embargo, which says that Barcelona can buy new players, but can not register them until the end of the embargo.

Bartomeu: Hello everyone, I'd like to welcome you and thank you to attend at this press-conference. This is a good day for our Club, as we are able to present the players our Manager Luis Enrique really wanted.
We were able to sign Atletico Madrids turkish midfielder Arda Turan. Enrique really wanted to add Turan to the Squad, as he would add a fighting side to the Team and this would be a great addition for Teams that park the bus.
Also we were able to sign Aleix Vidal from Sevilla. Vidals signing allowed us to loan out Martin Montoya to Inter Milan. Montoya needs playing time right now and after his loan spell ends, he will fight Vidal for a spot in the starting eleven, that's what the plan says.
Let's start with your questions!

Reporter: Mr. Bartomeu, you sit here with your new signings, but it's not possible to let them play for 6 months, not in your first team and not in your B-Team. Are there any plans, what to do with them? Will you loan them out?

Bartomeu: We are aware of this problem, but we will ask them what they want to do, if they want to stay or if they need some playing time. If they're coming to me and say they want to play at another club, we will find a suitable club.

Reporter: With the new arrival of these players the squad wins more depth, will any players leave the club?

Bartomeu: We don't wish to sell any player, if any player wants to leave, we will think about it, but a few players are not for sale.

Reporter: Aleix Vidal was signed, before Dani Alves signed a new contract, so everyone thought that Vidal will be his replacement, what will Alves new contract mean for Vidals chance to get playing time?

Bartomeu: Vidal was always aware of the situation of Dani. We always were really open about the standings of the negotiations with Dani and Aleix wanted to sign at our club and will be open to fight for the starting eleven spot. Despit that you've seen last year, that Luis Enrique uses his squad really well and everyone is getting playing time.



Reporter: How is the situation with Arda Turan? You have a really strong central midfield with Sergio Busquets, Ivan Rakitic and Andres Iniesta and the rotation players are good young La Masia talents like Sergi Roberto or Rafinha, how does Arda find a place in there?

Bartomeu:Luis Enrique has a plan to use all of the players, he had a plan when he asked us to sign Arda and Aleix. With all the players you mentioned every position has a second player who can be used!
Ardas Situation is really similar to Ivans Situation last year, everyone asked us, why we signed him and that he doesn't seem to get much playing time, but you all know how this ended for Ivan and I'm really positiv that Arda can develop in a similar way!



Thanks for attending at this press-conference now, I'd like to let our new players end this press-conference with a little statement!

Arda:

First of all there was many offers, but if there was a proposal from Barça, you have to reject everything else. It will be difficult for six months, but it will go quickly and I will soon be wearing the Barça shirt, which is a dream for me.

Aleix:

This is the most important day of my life. I've played for a lot of teams before arriving at Barca, but I hope this one's the last. I went through a lot to get here and I'm living a dream. I always try to give my best. There's no better way to learn than by playing with these teammates. I'm coming here to find my niche. These four months will be good for me to improve in certain areas.

First Game, First Title? European Super Cup!

We are live at the European Super Cup Final between the Champions League winner FC Barcelona and the European League winner FC Sevilla. The Cardiff City Stadium is sold out wit 33.316 Fans who can't wait for the game to begin.
Before the Match starts, we are going to have a look how both teams handeld themselves in the summer break and how they've changed.
So lets get going!

FC Sevilla

Transfers:
Lets start with the European League winner FC Sevilla.
Sevilla had to suffer the lost of their star striker Carlos Bacca, whom recently signed a contract at AC Milan. Sevilla got 30mio. € for Bacca and then they also had to sell Aleix Vidal to todays opponent FC Barcelona for a fee of 17mio. €
Bacca and Vidal were two of the most important players of Sevilla. They were vital for their success and it will be interesting to see, how they can move on, without them.

Bacca and Vidal weren't the only players who have left Sevilla over this summer. Gerard Deulofeu, Iago Aspas and other rotation players like Mariano Barbosa and Cicinho have left Sevilla.

Sevilla will try to fill the empty spaces with their new signings. The biggest Coup was the signing of italian striker Ciro Immobile on loan for a fee of 3mio. €.
The young italian joined from german Bundesliga-Team Borussia Dortmund for this Season, but Sevilla can make this deal permanent if they want for an extra 13mio. €.
Another player who can become a starter from the beginning on can be ukrainian winger Evgen Konoplyanka, who joined this summer on a free transfer from Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk and seems to become the steal of the summer.
A third vital player for their upcoming Season can become french defender Adil Rami, who made the opposite move in comparison to Carlos Bacca, as he moved to Sevilla from AC Milan.

Form:

Sevilla had only 4 friendly games until the game today and their form wasn't the best.
The last game, 3 days ago against Houston Dynamo, was lost 1:2 and Houston Dynamo gave them a though battle.
The other 3 games saw Sevilla getting 2 wins and 1 draw, but their opponents weren't the strongest with Italian 4th division side FC Parma, portuguese 2nd division side CD Santa Clara and Liga Adelante team Real Valladolid.

The player of the Pre-Season has to be Denis Suarez, the Barcelona loanee scored 3 goals in the 4 games and seems to be the playmaker of the Team. Almost every single big chance was created by him.

FC Barcelona

Transfers:

Well Barcelona aren't that active this summer period, due to their transfer embargo until 01/01/2016.
Barcelona bought two players with Arda Turan for 34mio. € from Atletico Madrid, and as mentioned before, Aleix Vidal from todays opponent FC Sevilla!
Both of the players are unable to play, because they can be registered as soon, as the transfer embargo is over.

What really had changed in Barcelona is the transfer from Barcelona icon Xavi Hernander! The spanish playmaker left Barcelona this summer to end his career in Qatar. The biggest question will be, can the young players, like Rafinha or Sergi Roberto, step up and become important players in Barcelona or has Barcelona to try to deal with only 3 players (Busquets, Iniesta, Rakitic) in the central midfield, until new players can be bought or Arda Turan can be used?

Form:

Barcelonas Form was great over the Pre-Season!
Barcelona played 5 games and all of them have been won. The best match in the Pre-Season was the last match and their test for todays game. Barcelona won 5:0 against portuguese Gigant Sporting Lisboa and really dominated them.

The player of the Pre-Season was clearly Luis Suarez. He adds something to the Barcelona Team that was missing, since Zlatan Ibrahimovic left the club a few years ago. One goal showed what I mean!
It was against Sporting Lisboa, when the Team had no space and no time to create a chance, when Dani Alves made a cross and Suarez was able to win the header against 4 Sporting defenders!

Live-Ticker

Lets start with the starting elevens of FC Sevilla and FC Barcelona!



1 Here we go. It's Barcelona to Kick-Off.
2 First spell of dominance from Barcelona, as they quickly pass the ball trough their lines, but the first 2 shoots had been blocked.
3 It is the first corner of the day and it's taken by Lionel Messi he sends high it into the penalty area...
3 ...and he finds Gerard Pique, who sends right next to the near post, a beautiful header!
11 What was ter Stegen doing here? A slow shoot from Denis Suarez, but ter Stegen almost let it slip trough his hands, luckily for him, it only led to a corner.
15 Sergio Busquets used his hand, right desicion.
24 Shoot from Rakitic, a brillant pass with his heel from Iniesta and Rakitic fired a shoot from around 30m and nearly scored here.
27 Again Rakitic, who opend the field with a great pass to Dani Alves, but his cross was blocked to a corner. Luis Suarez was all alone in the penalty area
29 Busquets with a Interception and a lovely first touch pass to Dani Alves, who directly crossed low into the penalty area. Lionel Messi almost scored a diving header.
37 Ivan Rakitic crossed the ball into the penalty area from about 40m and found Iniesta, who made an awesome pass to Lionel Messi. Messi shoots...
37 ...goaaaaaaal. Lionel Messi doubles the lead.
40 Again Dani Alves shoots from about 25m, but his shoot was blocked by Sevillas defence. The ball flew all the way to Ivan Rakitic who shoots directly! On the bar, what a rocket that was!
41Neymar wins the ball near the Seviila penalty area and he passes quickly to Lionel Messi...
41 ...and it is in! Goooooooal from Lionel Messi, he wouldn't miss that one! 3:0 for Barcelona now, is it over now for Sevilla?
42 What was Dani Alves thinking here? An ugly challange by the brazilian defender! He's sent off for a good reason!
44 What a save by ter Stegen! No one will talk about his mistake earlier ago now. Vitolo was all alone in front of him, as Gerard Pique slipped but the german talent grabs the ball out of the upper right corner with a brilliant reaction!
45 Half Time here in Cardiff and Barcelona showed us, why they are the favourit in todays final. A few good chances were created by Ivan Rakitic and Dani Alves, but it was ter Stegens save that secured the half time lead.
Will the ten Barcelona men defend their lead, after Dani Alves was sent off?

46 The second half is on the way, no changes on both sides
50 It looks like the first half again, both teams are looking to find themselves after the half time break
54 Neymar has the ball on the left side and tries to find Andres Iniesta. Iniesta was fouled, but the referee let Barcelona have the advantage, as Rakitic is their to pick up the ball. Rakitic shoots again and again Beto isn't able to save the ball...
54 ...and there is Neymar again to shoot and it is inside! Gooooaaaaaaaal! Goal! Goal! Goal de Neymar jr.! 4:0 for Barcelona!
58 Sevilla are dropping their heads now, they seem to have given up themselves.
61 Munir is subbed in for Neymar jr.
69 Rafinha is subbed in for Ivan Rakitic, Ciro Immobile is subbed in for Kevin Gameiro and Coke is subbed in for Vitolo, who is out with an injury.
73 Lionel Messi intercepts the ball on the left side and plays a killer ball to Munir, who tries to place the ball in the left bottom corner...
73 ...and he can surely place that ball, it's 5:0 now!
79 Sergi Roberto is subbed in for Andres Iniesta, Evgen Konoplyanka is also subbed in for Ever Banega
81 Roberto is on the right side and crossed in the ball to Luis Suarez and he controlls the ball 7m in front of the Goal, but Tremoulinas was able to tackle the ball away.
85 Rafinha made another great cross right to Luis Suarez, Suarez makes the header, but Beto saves the ball.
90 That's the final whistle, Sevilla wasn't trying anything in the last few minutes and Barcelona seemed to had enough for today, what a demonstration of strength!

very detailed man. Really like it.

kingpin_blue thanks buddy, I really try hard to enjoy with this story

Presidential Election!

Last weekend it was about time for every Barcelona Member to step up and vote for a new President or vote to keep Josep Maria Bartomeu. Former President Joan Laporta seems to be the fiercest rival for Bartomeu and wants the exact opposite for Barcelona as the current President!

How will the Barcelona Fans vote? Will they be looking to bring back the, probably most succesful President and Manager in History? Joan Laporta was in charge back in the days, when Frank Rijkaard and Pep Guardiola were in charge! And Laporta wants to bring Guardiola with him, in case he will be elected.
Another former Fan-Favourit who his on the side of Laporta is Eric Abidal, who would become the Director of Football and he is trying to convince Barcelona Legend Carles Puyol to take over the La Masia as the "Head of the personal development".



Josep Maria Bartomeu promised that he wants to seal a new deal with the "Quatari Foundation", as they want to double their financial income to the club.
Bartomeu has a contract for Luis Enrique, which only needed to be signed by Enrique, because it already is signed by the Barcelona Board.
Enrique can also ask for any player he wants and Bartomeu wants to sign that player!
Bartomeu already made on of his Promises real with "Espai Barcelona".

Supercopa Review

Barcelona had a second chance to win a title this Season and could be on their way to the sixtette! With their European Super Cup triumph a few days ago. Will Barcelona have another dominant spell or can Bilbao find a way to break Barcelona?

Barcelona are showing that they mean business, as Luis Enrique is sending out his possibly best eleven, the only position which could switch over the season is the goalkeeper position! In the Supercup against Sevilla Marc-Andre ter Stegen had his chance and did well and Claudio Bravo is having his chance in the Supercopa de Espana.

Bilbao will giving everything they've got. Their Striker Aritz Aduriz will possibly be their biggest treat.
Aduriz may not be the paceiest player, he may not be the strongest player, but he surely knows how to bring the ball inside of the net!

Review Leg 1

The story of this game is told really fast, Barcelona were as dominant as ever. After 2 minutes it was Lionel Messi, who scored a brilliant goal, after an Bilbao defender made a horrible mistake. Messi took over the loose ball and curled the ball into the upper right corner with a little touch on the crossbar.

Bilbao were under shock, after they've conceded the goal. Messi was able to add another goal to the game and made everything clear, Bilbao found it hard to gain a chance.

Review Leg 2

You clearly could see, that Bilbao have lost their self confidence after their horrible display in the first leg and they hadn't had one single chance in the first half! Barcelona played with a few rotation players like Rafinha, Bartra, Roberto or Munir!
Munir could become a part of the first team, as he played really well in the Pre-Season and.
Back to the game, it was Luis Suarez, who made everything clear, as he scored a goal after a brilliant ball from Lionel Messi.

Suarez has made another clinical finish and it was Rafinha who made everything clear with his goal to make it 3:0! Neymar also had one for the fans, a brilliant goal from outside of the penalty area to end the game with a 4:0

Comments about the games

Lionel Messi:

It is great to play alongside these players, they make everything easier for me!

Andres Iniesta:

We show that we want every single game as bad, as the games before. We want to win everything, we don't care if it's a friendly game, a training game, we even want to win the training football tennis matches!

Aritz Aduriz:

It's really hard to play against a team like Barcelona, they don't give you that many chances. It's really hard for a striker to even get a chance against them.

i think you´ve make a little mistake in the Supercup de Espana, because your opponent is Athletic Club de Bilbao and not Sevilla
But otherwise your story is very interesting, even for Real Madrid-Fan like me
But i hope you are happy with the second place in la Liga

@4Ramos First of all welcome to the site, hope you have fun here.

Oh yeah I made a mistake, going to clear that up right now!
I hope the story will enjoy you for a long time.

Young players to watch!

Barcelona has probably one of the greatest youth facilities in the whole World. Only teams like Ajax Amsterdam or Arsenal London are having youth facilities who can be compared to La Masia.
There are many players, who are in the first team actual or have left in the last few years, who are probably one of the best players in recent history.
Players like Xavi Hernandez, Andres Iniesta, Carles Puyol, Lionel Messi, Sergio Busquets or Gerard Pique.
And almost every year there are promising players in the Barcelona B Team.
We want to show you a few of them, who could make it into the first team sooner or later.



There are also players who couldn't make it into the first team, but are still great. Players like Bojan Krkic, Gerard Deulofeu, Marc Muniesa, Andreu Fontas, Giovani dos Santos or his brother Jonathan and of course Thiago Alcantara. All of them are playing in a highly reputated division in England, Spain or Germany.

Let us start with...

Sergi Samper

Sergi Samper is a defensive midfielder, who is currently a spanish under 19 international.
Samper already made a match in the UEFA Champions League against Apoel Nicosia and he is the current Barcelona B captain.

He posseses some amazing passing and first touch skills. Samper is really calm, even if he is put under pressure by numerous players, kinda like Sergio Busquets.
That's why the media called him the new Sergio Busquets. Samper already could be the number one option, in case Sergio misses a game.

Alex Grimaldo

Alex Grimaldo is a left wing back, who is currently a spanish under 21 international.
Grimaldo suffered a damaged cruciate ligament and was out for about 7 months, now you can imagine, if he could be a first team player by now, if he hadn't suffered it.

Grimaldo can swing some great crosses, but he also is able to play as a defensive or central midfielder.
A well known player who is very similar is the german national teams captain Phillip Lahm. Well Grimaldo isn't on his level, but he can be compared to him.
He could see some playing time in the Cup matches for the first Team.

Alen Halilovic

Alen Halilovic just joined Barcelona last year and a current croatian international, despite his young age he already has a hugh experience on his side, playing in the UEFA Champions League for his former club Dinamo Zagreb.

Halilovic is a classical Enganche, like Lionel Messi, but let's not compere anyone with Messi, he is out of everyones league.
Halilovic has a great vision and is really a creative player, who can play awesome killer balls and can outdribble almost everyone.
Halilovic will get some playing time this Season, he already was subbed in in the UEFA Super Cup.

Jean-Marie Dongou Tsafack

A player with that name will be remembered, because of it. Dongou will also be remembered for his skills. The current Cameroonian international, will be a key player for the Barcelona B Team.

Dongou is a striker, who can almost do anything, he can finish, he can do great headers and long shoots. He knows how to walk into the free spots on the field. Dongou might not see loads of playing time this Season, as Munir and Sandro Ramirez had been moved to the first team, but he could have a bright future at Barcelona.

The Season is on their way

After a long Pre-Season the Liga BBVA has started and we will show you how the first few Matchdays went.
This years Liga BBVA campaign could become one of the closest once in a really long time with the last years treeble winner FC Barcelona, who are as strong as last year, Real Madrid who have a new Manager, Atletico Madrid, who have bought some interesting players, which you can say about FC Valencia too and FC Sevilla and Athletic Bilbao who are always causing the big ones a real threat.

Loads of good players have joined the their new Teams like Jackson Martinez, Alvaro Negredo, Danilo or others.
Sadly a few Legends have left the League. Xavi Hernandez has left FC Barcelona this summer after he had rejected a new 2 year long deal and he moved to Qatar. Iker Casillas, the last galactico, has left Real Madrid over the summer and he joined FC Porto, as he wanted to play Champions League Football.

Liga BBVA

Barcelona seemed to leash out an offensive firework in the first few minutes! They didn't even needed 5 minutes to make everything clear and to gain a 0:2 lead against Vigo. The game was set and Barcelona seemed to do what was necassery. With the 3rd goal after 12 minutes the match was over for Vigo.
It looked like Vigo only wanted the game to be over and the Barcelona players only watched out not to get injured.
The rest of the match therefore looked really boring.



Luis Enrique

It was a great start into the game! Leading 3:0 against Vigo after 12 minutes, well no one could expect such a start! The rest of the game concerned me a little bit, I have to admit that, I wanted the players to play forward against whomever, no matter how the game was set and they didn't deliver that.

What a second half that was! Unlike the game against Vigo Barcelona had a dominant, but not succesful first half and the game went with a draw into the half-time.
The second half started with a penalty. Lionel Messi was able to send the keeper into the wrong corner.
Right after the penalty, Sevilla had lost a player due to a red card and suffered from then on. Barcelona dominated from then on even more and finally scored. The game ended with a 5:1 win for Barcelona.



Luis Enrique

It was a tough game, even if it didn't looked like it was that hard. Sevilla are a quality team and we made an amazing second half.
The Team showed that they can outplay anyone and we will build on that to have a succesful Season.