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BARCELONA INTERESTED IN RASHFORD

With Robert Lewandowski’s future still uncertain, Barcelona are looking at potential alternatives in the market, in their quest to sign a new centre-forward in the summer. And one of their desired options could be Marcus Rashford, reports Diario Sport. The news outlet suggests the Catalans are closely monitoring the situation of Rashford. The forward has been transfer-listed by Manchester United, as he is not involved in the plans of new coach Erik ten Hag.

Rashford has a great fan following at Manchester United, but ten Hag has insisted the club offload the forward if a suitable deal comes across. Barcelona are studying the possibility of signing the English international. The club like the player due to his pace, physique and ability to score goals. He also brings vast experience at the highest level, having made over 300 appearances for United. Continue reading →

BARCELONA RETURN TO WINNING WAYS

Barcelona are back to winning ways at home after the 2-1 win over Real Mallorca. The Catalan giants have had a recent poor record at the Nou Camp before the Mallorca game. Barcelona had lost their last three games at home in all competitions before the visit of Real Mallorca last weekend.

Xavi Hernandez and his Barcelona players were heavy favourites to win the Europa League title, but they could not fulfil the status after they were beaten at home by German Bundesliga outfit Eintracht Frankfurt at the start of the poor run at home. The Catalans were beaten 3-2 at home by 10-man Frankfurt for a 4-3 aggregate defeat after the first leg in Frankfurt ended in a 1-1 draw. Continue reading →

BARCELONA IN BID TO SIGN MIDFIELDER

Five-time European champions Barcelona are said to be keen on signing Inter Milan midfielder Marcelo Brozovic at the end of the season. The Croatian international would be a free agent at the end of this season if he does not agree a new Inter Milan deal.

Italian news outlet Calciomercato reported that Barcelona have already informed the player about their quest to sign him as a free agent at the end of this season. The interest of Barcelona has complicated things for the Nerazzuri who were very sure that the Croatian midfielder will sign a new contract at the club. As things stand, Brozovic will need to pick one side. He has to determine if joining Xavi Hernandez as part of his revolution at Barcelona is the next step for his career or staying at the San Siro via a new deal.

Inter have already made an offer for Brozovic, but the midfielder is yet to sign it. The Croatian will be on of the highest earners at Inter with the salary of €6m on a yearly basis. The midfielder has been offered a four-year contract.

Brozovic is a regular in the Inter Milan as highlighted by him missing just one game for the club in all competitions this season. He has played 29 out of the 30 Inter Milan games in all competitions this season. The Barcelona target missed the solitary game due to suspension. He was not in the Nerazzuri squad for the 2-1 extra time win over Empoli in the last 16 as far as this season’s Coppa Italia is concerned.

Barcelona fans would be hoping that Brozovic will sign for them ahead of his current team. The Catalans have been very active in the transfer market this year with the signings of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Adama Traore and Ferran Torres.

Barcelona Completes 3rd Signing

Barcelona does not want to fall behind in this summer transfer window as they have completed their 3rd signing with the Chilean goalkeeper Claudio Bravo being the latest addition to the team of Luis Enrique.

“I would like to thank FC Barcelona for putting their trust in me and my future abilities. I am proud to be here and be a part of this great project and this great club. I feel that it was time to put an end to an era at Real Sociedad, a club where I enjoyed a lot more success than I had hoped. Now I have to defend these colors to the best of my abilities. A thousand things are going through my head right now; you always hope that these types of things will happen to you and that you get this far.” Bravo said during a press conference as he expressed his satisfaction in joining a club with the caliber like Barcelona.

Ter Stegen and Rakitic are the other players that Barcelona has secured but there still is a player which is rumored to be joining Camp Nou as rumors involving Luis Suarez simply do not stop from flying around as each day passes.

The Uruguayan attacker Luis Suarez continues showing his world-class abilities as he not only pushed Liverpool to the top of the Premier League but has displayed impressive performances for his country, Uruguay in the 2014 World Cup.

Everything has not been great for the Liverpool player as he was recently sanctioned after another biting incident. Suarez bitted Giorgio Chiellini when Uruguay was battling against Italy and came out with the victory and his actions ultimately led to Luis Suarez being suspended for 9 matches and for 4 months from any football-related activity.

Even with all the history that Luis Suarez has and his aggressive and questionable decisions in and outside of the pitch, this has not stopped Barcelona on launching offers for the Uruguayan and it is even believed that the Spanish club is about to hire a sports psychologist that will help control Suarez when he joins Camp Nou.

Johan Cruyff says Argentina are team to beat

Dutch legend Johan Cruyff has tipped Lionel Messi and Argentina to go all the way and secure their long awaited third World Cup crown this summer in Brazil.

And the former Barcelona manager has also backed the likes of Germany, Italy and Spain to go far in the competition as well.

Brazil remain strong favorites to secure their sixth World Cup on home soil, but Cruyff believes it will be the Messi led Argentina that will be the team to beat at the biggest event of the beautiful game. The 67 year old believes Brazil has too much pressure riding on them as they look to vanquish the ghosts of 1950 and secure the coveted title.

And the Dutchman thinks this pressure could force Brazil to succumb and that is where Argentina could capitalize on their great rivalsa�� fall and secure the title for their own.

Speaking on his column in a Dutch newspaper, Johan Cruyff added that the pressure on the squad is huge; there is too much riding on them. But they will have to look out for Argentina, which has arguably the most talented team in the World Cup by a margin.

He went on to mention that Spain will pose a strong challenge, as well as Italy and Germany who have a habit of growing into the tournament.

Johan Cruyff also rued the several injury absentees from the World Cup with top class players like Marco Reus, Radamel Falcao, Frank Ribery and several others missing due to injuries.

Several others including Cristiano Ronaldo, Steven Gerrard, Neymar and Arturo Vidal are all struggling with injuries and Cruyff hopes these players get fit in time. He mentioned that this is a month long event and he is not happy that injured players have already been dropped from the squads.

Cruyff Puts Barcalona Under Fire

According to several reports, Barcelona are set to offer super star Lionel Messi another new contract. This news comes as a major surprise considering that he signed a new deal only 12 months ago. Messi, who is about to turn 27 in June, has already signed seven contract renewals in the last 11 seasons. The new deal is expected to make him the player with the highest salary of around A? 15.5 million per year. The deal, though, is expected to significantly reward Barcelona because they will be now receiving a large portion of his image rights.

This will mean that Messi will be suffering a drop in overall income when compared with the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, as Barcelona will not be pocketing his image rights. The new contract, though, has come under criticism from Barcelona legend Johan Cruyff, who thinks that the contract extension is unwarranted. Cruyff has been highly critical of the club in recent months. Gerardo Martino especially has come under fire from the legend, who famously formed the philosophy of the club. After having witnessed it come under distraction from the new manager, he says that the club should rethink their philosophy once again.

Cruyff was an advisor Barcelona for a few years before leaving his post.

“I never speak of who does or doesn’t deserve it, but I think that Barcelona have played quite well this season and they still have the chance to win the league, and therefore they also deserve it. The renewal of Messia��s contract is just a quick fix because all eyes were on him after the Neymar situation. But what about other players like Xavi who have also given everything to BarA�a? It’s not Neymar’s fault: he’s the victim; I don’t want to discredit him. His agent didn’t do things properly,a�? said the Dutchman.

CRUYFF SLAMS MOURIHO

Jose Mourinho is a coach that has made a number of controversial decisions and actions which is one of the reasons on why some players and coaches consider the Portuguese coach to be one of the best of his generation while others contemplate him as a negative coach who always blames his players when things go wrong.

The Dutch legend Johan Cruyff claims that Jose Mourinho only thinks about the result above everything and the star of Barcelona is even predicting that Mourinho will lose control of the Chelsea dressing room just as what happened in Spain with Real Madrid.

It’s always the same with him. When things are going well, it’s the result of his good work, but the players are to blame when things are going badly. He already lost the dressing room at Real Madrid because of that and I can see the same happen at Chelsea. “The problem is simply that Mourinho always focuses squarely on the result. Everything else is secondary, even all the top players he has running around for him.”Cruyff revealed.

Cruyff coached Barcelona during 1988-1996 where he managed to secure 11 trophies and his contributions for the Spanish club have not gone unnoticed as he was named as a honorary president of Barcelona in March of 2010 but a few months later Sandro Rossell stripped the Dutchman of that role and Cruyff cut all of his relations he had with Barcelona.

According to the new president of Barcelona FC, Josep Bartomeu he has been contacting Cruyff who he considers to be a very important player for the club.

“We have been in contact with people close to Cruyff. We will keep talking. He is a very important person for us and for this club. Little by little, things will return to normal.” Bartomeu said.

He also stated that his recent call ups with Cruyff are a way to reward him for all the work he has done for Barcelona. Barcelonaa��s infamous tiki-taka style of playing is generally credited to Johan Cruyff as it was during his time in charge of the Spanish club that it was starting being created and developed.

REMY BACKED BY CRUYFF

Newcastle United striker Loic Remy, who is on loan from QPR till the end of the season, has been a huge hit at St Jamesa��s Park. He has already scored 13 goals in just 24 matches for the club. It includes the winner against Aston Villa recently. It looked like the match was heading into a stalemate with both clubs unable to find the opening goal, but the Frenchman stepped up to score the only goal of the game in injury time to give Newcastle three vital points. After the match, Newcastle manager Alan Pardew gave the highest possible praise for the Frenchman by comparing him with Dutch legend Johan Cruyff.

He says that Cruyff had an ability to slow the game down for his benefit and Remy is one of the few players he has seen do the same. The Frenchman has already been attracting a lot of attention from other Premier league clubs in the last few months. Pardew has admitted that Newcastle face a huge fight in order to keep him at the club, while he has even said that he may go to extreme lengths in order to keep him at St Jamesa��s Park. The former West Ham manager says that Remy maybe dropped for the next match in order to prevent interest in him from growing.

“I think that’s fairly obvious. Somebody just said to me the game seemed a little bit slower when he was on the ball and I think when you get a quality player that’s what they can do. Players like Cruyff and Bergkamp, they can slow the game down and he can do that. He’s going to be hot property, he’s going to get a lot of press tomorrow and I’m going to leave him out the next 11(!)” said Pardew.

CRUYFF NETS AWARD

The legend of Barcelona, Johan Cruyff was awarded with the 2013 UEFA Presidenta��s Award as a way to recognize his achievements in revolutionizing how the Dutch superstar has influenced the sport in both of his roles as a player and a coach.

The UEFA president, Michael Platini was the person that gave Cruyff the award and the former player of Barcelona later stated that it is one of the highest accolades that you can get.

a�?It is a great privilege for me to present the UEFA Presidenta��s Award toA�Johan Cruyff, one of the truly great footballers and ambassadors for the game. First as a player and then as a coach, he was committed to entertaining the public with his own unique brand of football.a�? Those were the words that Platini used to describe Cruyff as he was giving the former Dutch player, the prestigious award.

Cruyff stepped up and received the award by saying:

a�?Herea��s Amsterdam where it started. Ia��m really proud to have received this award. This is one of the highest accolades you can get. Ita��s unique when you think of players like Beckenbauer and Di StefA?no and all these players who have had a huge impact in their countries, and the fact that you are part of that is amazing.a�?

Alfredo Di Stefano, Franz Beckenbauer, Bobby Charlton, Raymond Kopa, Gianni Rivera and Eusebio are some of the other previous winners of the award. Some of the highlights of Cruyffa��s playing career are when he won 4 consecutive La Liga titles with Barcelona and when named into the dream team of the Catalan club.

The 66 years old tactician has also set up the Johan Cruyff Foundation which helps improve the lives of mentally as well as physically challenged children.

ROSELL RESIGNS

Sandro Rosell has resigned from being the president of Barcelona after an emergency board meeting was made at the Nou Camp. Everything is involving the transfer of Neymar from Santos to Barcelona with speculation rising about what the actual price paid by the Catalan and where that money did ultimately arrive.

Rosell has always said that the amount paid for the Brazilian player was a��47 million which was divided in the following manner, a��14 million to Santos and a��33 million to the company owned by the playera��s father which is called N&N. But when the club member, Jordi Casas asked Rosell about the payment to N&N, he was ignored and later went to the courts.

After all of the paperwork and contracts was shown, the total fee actually adds up to a��82 million. With some payments going to Brazil for them to continue developing new talents while another payment actually went to find new commercial partners for Barcelona.

Another incident that is being disputed is that in a contract which was signed back in 2011, stated that Barcelona would purchase Neymar in 2014 when his contract would be over and he became a free-agent but after everything was said and done, the money was actually paid in 2013 when the Brazilian player was still partly owned by Santos and Rosell says this was a penalty payment for breaking the agreement with N&N to sign the player in 2014 but this is disputed.

On his resignation Rosell said that threats and accusations ultimately left him with no choice but step down from his position of president of the club.

“The success the club has had has also come along with difficult moments for myself and my family. There have been threats and accusations which make you consider your position including the claim of misappropriation of funds and the court case. I’ve always stated that we acted correctly with the Neymar transfer.” Rosell said.

Rosell will be replaced by Bartomeu until the next elections are made.