Carles Puyol will be the new assistant to the sports management team

FC Barcelona has announced that Carles Puyol will, from next September, be joining the Football Department, currently run by Andoni Zubizarreta, as an assistant to the sports management team.

The appointment of Puyol means that one of the most emblematic captains in the club history will be remaining at the club, a desire that was already expressed by the president, directors, coaches and players during his event last May 15th.

Puyol was thrilled with the news, stating:  "I want to thank FC Barcelona for all that it has given me before and for this chance that has arisen now. I will try to do the very best I can, and especially to learn a lot.” He added that “I have always played football and tried to do so as well as possible, and I’ll be doing the same with this. Now I need some time to rest and continue treatment on my knee, but I am really looking forward to it. I am very excited about this new stage of my life.”

Andoni Zubizarreta, the director of sport for football, also expressed his pleasure on hearing the news. "Puyol is joining the Football Department and we will be seeking to make the most his experience. We also want people to realise how much he knows. 

He will be an assistant to the sports management, so he’ll be working with me on club projects, both internally and externally."

FC Barcelona will have a second chance to win the Liga title

FC Barcelona are ready to grasp their second chance with both hands and snatch the Spanish title from Atletico Madrid in a winner-takes-all clash this weekend.

Atletico have 89 points, three more than Barça who have drawn their last two matches, but a win for the hosts would see them retain the trophy courtesy of a better head-to-head record.

Xavi told a news conference: "We saw the situation as black and that we had lost the league but football has given us another chance. We play at home in front of our fans and we have all in our favour to win. The crowd  need to get behind us due to what we are playing for. This is an historic chance and it will be a spectacular final. Anyone who thought that we still had chances would have been considered crazy."

With a first title since 1996 within touching distance, Atletico have picked up only one point from their last two games since reaching the Champions League final.

Xavi said winning the title would be the ideal riposte to those who claimed that the team was in terminal decline. Finally, he declared: "It will be very difficult as they are the best team defensively in Europe. They pressure a lot, work hard together and have different attacking options. It will be a rocky ride as they are the team playing best. From five games that we have faced them we have lost once and drawn four. The key for us will be to score early so that they will have to come out."

FC Barcelona summer camps.

Next Thursday 15th  May at 13.30 in the Auditori 1899, the Club is holding an event to honour Carles Puyol’s retirement as an FC Barcelona player.

The event will be attended by president Josep Maria Bartomeu, and representatives of the Board of Directors, the first team squad, coaches, friends, relatives, executives and other dignitaries.

Carles Puyol started out as a footballer in his hometown of La Pobla de Segur. His huge potential soon showed through and in the 1995/96 season he joined the Barça youth system, living at La Masia. It wasn’t long before he was one of the key members of the Barça B team, and on October 2, 1999, his dream finally came true when he made his first team debut.

His first major title as a Barça player was the 2004/05 Liga, when he lifted the trophy at the Camp Nou as first team captain. The following season, 2005/06, the Catalan defender led the team to another Liga title as well as his first Champions League in Paris.

In total, he has won six Ligas, three UEFA Champions League, two Spanish Cups, two European Supercups, six Spanish Supercups and two Clubs World Cups

FC Barcelona kids summer camps.

Dani Alves and Neymar Jr will play together in the Brazil squad for the World Cup

Dani Alves and Neymar Jr. are the first FC Barcelona players to be officially called up for the World Cup in Brazil. Both are in the list of 23 players announced by Brazil National Coach, Luiz Felipe Scolari last Wednesday. Also called up are Barça players, Henrique and Maxwell.

It will be the first World Cup for Neymar Jr., one of the major stars of the Brazil national team. However, it will be Alves’ second World Cup. Alves, in fact, is one of the four players on the list who were also in the World Cup in South Africa. The others are the goalkeeper Julio Cesar, the other right back, Maicon, and the midfielder Ramires.

It’s worth remembering that Brazil, as host nation, will play the very first match, against Croatia, on June 12th. Brazil’s other games in the group stage will be against Mexico (June 17th) and Cameroon (June 23rd).

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FC Barcelona is about to get 100 goals in the league

Barça are just one goal off hitting the hundred goal mark in the league again this season. With 99 goals in the 34 games so far played, Martino’s team needs one more to reach 100 for the third season, following last season’s record 115 and 114 the year before.

Of the 99 goals, 61,6% have come from Messi, Alexis and Pedro, the team’s three leading scorers: the Argentinean has bagged 28 so far, with Alexis on 18 and Pedro 15 and all three are in the league’s top ten scorers table. In all, 14 players have scored for Barça so far, with Neymar (9) and Cesc (8) leading the pack. There have also been three own goals, against Betis and Villarreal (2).

With an average of  2,75 goals a game in the league, Barça has only failed to score on five occasions: against Osasuna(0-0), Atletico Bilbao(1-0), Atletico Madrid(0-0), Valladolid (1-0) and Granada (1-0) and scored more than three goals in 13 matches, against Levante (7-0), Rayo (0-4), Real Sociedad (4-1), Valladolid (4-1), Betis (1-4), Granada (4-0), Getafe (2-5), Elche (4-0), Seville (1-4), Rayo (6-0), Almeria (4-1), Osasuna (7-0) and Reial Madrid (3-4).

FC Barcelona summer camp in Oakville.

Camp Nou will honour Tito Vilanova

Next Saturday, before the league game against Getafe, Camp Nou will be paying tribute to Tito Vilanova, Barça’s manager who passed away on April 25th .

The club wanted to offer the players and fans this chance to express their feelings, which will involve the team wearing a special commemorative shirt with the words ‘Tito, per sempre etern’ (Tito, forever eternal) on the chest.

A video showing highlights of Tito’s life will be shown on the video scoreboards, a huge banner will be set on one side of the stadium and the announcer, Manel Vich will then introduce a minute’s silence.

The club is calling on supporters to make sure they get to the stadium about ten minutes earlier than usual in order to join in with this emotional farewell to Tito Vilanova.

Apart from the ‘space for condolences’ at the Camp Nou, FC Barcelona is also offering the chance for fans who can’t get to the stadium to express their sympathy for the loss of Tito Vilanova. A special email address was set up just for this (TitoEtern@fcbarcelona.cat). So far, 12,128 messages have arrived from all around the world.

Read more about FC Barcelona summer camp in Mississauga.

Alves’ gesture has moved the world of sport against racism

Dani Alves’ reaction in eating the banana that was thrown from the Madrigal stands has travelled around the world. In the last few hours, this particular fruit has become a global symbol of the condemnation of racism. 

After Alves reaction, social networks were flooded with messages of support for the Brazilian, the most used hashtags being #somostodosmacacos, #weareallmonkeys o #totssommonos.

Thousands of people have been photographed with bananas. One of the first was Neymar in a picture taken with his son. Abidal, Aguero, Fernandinho, Marta, Balotelli, Luis Suarez, Coutinho, Lewandowski, Lucas Moura, Marcos Senna, Hulk, Bebeto, and Roberto Carlos are some of the players who have publicly expressed their opposition to racism.

The gesture of the defender, in addition to crossing borders, has also made an impact beyond the world of sport. There are journalists who have eaten a banana against racism in front of the cameras.

The General Secretary of the United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon, the Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, and FIFA President Sepp Blatter, are other personalities who have spoken out against racism following Alves’ reaction.

With all this, Dani Alves lives in the hope that this racist incident "serves in some way to stop this kind of attitude". He added: "I hope all the repercussions, which just began as a carefree joke, are successful".

In an interview with The National Journal of Globus Esporte, the Barça player said: "We are in the twenty-first century, the world has changed and we must evolve with it. We can’t stay behind the trend".

Read more about FC Barcelona summer camp in Oakville.