Carles Puyol says goodbye to FC Barcelona

Veteran defender and long-time team captain, Carles Puyol said his goodbye to FC Barcelona last week, signaling his retirement from professional soccer after a career spent entirely with the Catalan club.

Referring to chronic knee injuries, the 36-year-old Spanish international told to a press conference: “The idea is to recuperate. Due to the physical problems, I’ve hardly been able to play this year and it would be hard for me to play in the future anywhere else.”

Having ruled out coaching, Puyol said he has had discussions with Barça management about what other role he might play with the club where he won 21 titles, including six La Liga championships and three Champions League crowns. 

Puyol was joined at the farewell by current and former teammates, managers and FC Barcelona executives, as well as past national team coaches, Jose Antonio Camacho and Iñaki Saez.

Besides 593 official matches with Barça, Puyol has made 100 appearances with the Spanish national side that won the 2008 European Championship and the 2010 World Cup.

He acknowledged the importance of the 21 trophies, but said he will remember his time with Barcelona more for the human relationships. Finally, he stated: “I arrived as a child and I’m leaving with a family. 

A stage is ending, but I expect others to come and I expect to enjoy them as much as this one. I have played with the best players and with the best people. I will miss all of you very much.”

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Andrés Iniesta will play his game number 100 for Spain

Andrés Iniesta will play his 100th cap for Spain. The manager, Vicente del Bosque confirmed at his pre-match press conference that, although the team are only playing for honour and he is likely to give chances to the players that were left out of the first two games, Iniesta will be in his starting eleven against Australia, “so that he can win his 100th cap”.

He’d only be the ninth man ever to make it to a century of games for Spain. 

He made his debut eight years ago under Luis Aragonés for a friendly against Russia in his home town of Albacete. His first official match came in the 2006 World Cup in Germany against Saudi Arabia.

Iniesta has lived through the most glorious period ever for the Spanish national team. The country won both Euro 2008 in Switzerland and Austria and Euro 2012 in Ukraine and Poland, and in the latter, he was also named player of the tournament. But his greatest moment came at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. 

With just four minutes of extra time left in the final against Holland, Iniesta scored the winner to make Spain world champions for the first time ever.

FC Barcelona makes a new official signing

FC Barcelona made official the signing of Croatian international midfielder Ivan Rakitic from Sevilla last Monday.

Rakitic, who is with the Croatian squad currently contesting the World Cup in Brazil, has agreed a five-year deal with Barça and has cost the Catalan club 20 million euros.

Rakitic arrives at Barcelona on the back of an excellent season in which he was one of the key players in Sevilla`s conquest of the European League.

Rakitic made 59 appearances for the club last season, scoring 15 goals in the process.

He is Barca`s second signing for the coming season, following the arrival of goalkeeper Ter Stegen.

The arrival of Rakitic will serve to increase the doubts over the future of veteran Spanish international, Xavi Hernandez at Barça.

Before  the confirmation of Rakitic`s arrival, there have been rumours that Xavi is considering an offer to play in Qatar and now that Rakitic has been confirmed, Xavi may prefer to end his exceptional career elsewhere.

Barca  have already confirmed the sale of Cesc Fabregas to Chelsea and are looking to offload Alex Song as well this summer.

FC Barcelona players are concentrated on the World Cup

After the first four days of the World Cup in Brazil, only Javier Mascherano and Leo Messi’s Argentina must make their debut, concerning to Barça players. 

The rest of the teams with Barça players are now focused on their second group stage match. 

The Brazilians are now preparing to play off Mexico and the match is scheduled for tomorrow, Tuesday. Dani Alves, speaking about the upcoming game, said: “World Cup matches are always difficult, every team demands a lot from you. We have to evolve the team a bit more. We have to improve to reach our final objective.”

The team managed by Vicente del Bosque, which has six FC Barcelona players in its ranks, are picking themselves up after the 1-5 defeat to the Netherlands. Two days after the defeat, Spain started preparing for the crucial game against Chile. 

On the other hand, Barça player Cesc Fàbregas talked about his transfer to Chelsea last Sunday, stating: “I decided that my time at FC Barcelona had ended, and I looked for the best option for me.”

Lastly, Alex Song and Cameroon are also preparing for their second match of the tournament. The FC Barcelona players and his countrymen will face off Croatia next Wednesday.

FC Barcelona and HJK Helsinki will face off on August

FC Barcelona’s preseason is starting to take shape. Over the next few days, the club will be revealing which teams it will be meeting in the build-up to the 2014-15 season. 

And the first to be announced is HJK Helsinki, who Barça will play on Saturday 9th August in the Olympic Stadium in the Finnish capital, which has the capacity for 40,000 spectators.

HJK Helsinki is well known for its commitments to charitable causes and corporate social responsibility, a philosophy that it shares with FC Barcelona. One example of this is how the potential proceeds from this match will be used to build a new indoor pavilion where young people in Helsinki will be able to play football in winter, a time when all the outdoor pitches in the city are covered in snow. 

Like Barça, HJK are also admirably committed to youth football, with over 2,500 children currently benefitting from its academy. So, this match fits perfectly with FC Barcelona’s traditional quest to combine friendly matches with social causes and the promotion of sport among young people.

For several members of the Barça squad, this will not be their first visit to the Olympic Stadium. Indeed, it was in this same stadium that Spain played Finland in a 2014 World Cup qualifier last September 6th. 

Tickets for this game are now on sale. Tickets will go on offer to general public via the following channel: www.lippupalvelu.fi.

The new official FC Barcelona app is called FCB Pinball

The application that recreates a pinball machine with the Barça players as the main protagonists is now on sale in the App Store for 2.69 euros. FCB Pinball is available for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices in the App Store.

Bringing together the world of football and classic pinball was the idea behind the very latest FC Barcelona digital app, FCB Pinball. Its features a 3D pinball machine starring the Barça players, in which the players have to complete missions related with the team, including special moves in attack and defence, as well as set pieces.

FCB Pinball was developed by Legendo Entertaintment, using a made-to-measure 3D graphics engine that digitally simulates the complex movements of the iconic silver ball.

Any members and fans can now start competing not only for hi-scores, but also against friends all around the planet in the world rankings that appear in the Apple Game Center.

FC Barcelona’s players are travelling to Brazil

The Spanish and Cameroon National Teams are travelling to their World Cup headquarters in Brazil. The Argentinian National Team will travel today.

The World Cup is getting closer. The last national teams which are not yet in Brazil are beginning to travel to the headquarters of football for the next five weeks. 

The Spanish team, with seven Barça players, are travelling today from the U.S.A. to Brazil. Messi and Mascherano will travel with the Argentine National Team on Monday to Brazil.

It’s worth remembering that these three teams played their last friendly before the World Cup Finals last Saturday. Spain beat El Salvador 2-0; Cameroon won 1-0 against Moldova, and Argentina beat Slovenia 2-0. The ten Barça players within these teams, with the exception of Piqué, all played some minutes.

Following the Argentina match, Messi stressed the optimism surrounding the national squad: "The World Cup is really tough and anything can happen, but we will fight for the title", and added that "We are all very excited, and now comes the moment of truth. We’re going to Brazil with tons of expectation".

On the other hand, we must say that Brazil, with Alves and Neymar Jr, and Chile, with Alexis Sanchez, have been in Brazil for some days now.