FC Barcelona

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Barcelona Vs Valencia (2-1) - All Goals & Match Highlights - La Liga - 1...

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Valencia game the focus of the week

www.fcbarcelona.cat

On Wednesday, Barça welcomes back its international players and Guardiola will have his full squad with him to concentrate on the Valencia match.

The international break over, FCB now have Liga, Champions League and Copa del Rey matches to think about. On Saturday, the leaders are coming to the Camp Nou, Valencia. The squad has four training sessions together before that.

Evening session

On Monday and Tuesday, Guardiola has drawn on the reserve team to bolster his numbers, but ti will be back to normal tomorrow. Six of the players play against Scotland on Tuesday night, and will be returning tomorrow, so the session has been moved to an evening slot at 18.00 in order to accommodate them. The venue will be the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper.

Thursday and Friday mornings

The Valencia game kicks off Saturday at 20.00, while the next two training sessions will be in the morning, at 11.00 at the Ciutat Esportiva on Thursday and Friday.

Final session

Barça will also train on the morning of the match at 11.30, which will be at the Camp Nou and will be the moment for putting together the final details of the preparations.

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Monday, October 11, 2010

Ramallets-Valdés a meeting of two legend

Víctor Valdés is already a historic figure at the club as the only keeper to win two European Cups and he looks set to beat Ramallets record of 288 league games pretty soon.

Antoni Ramallets and Víctor Valdés got together for an article in October’s REVISTA BARÇA to interchange opinions and feelings –the keepers of the teams of the Five and Six cups, past, present and future between the sticks at the Nou camp.

Ramallets: “I’ll be happy if Victor beats my record”.

Víctor Valdés, who made his debut eight years ago with Louis van Gaal at the helm in a game against Atletico Madrid, overtook Salvador Sadurní (247 games) last season and will soon be passing Antoni Ramallets (288), who reckons: “records are there to be beaten and I’ll be very happy if a guy like Victor takes it off me".

Experience

Victor was handed his first chance by Van Gaal, Rijkaard made him a fixed part of the team and he has become a key part of Guardiola’s successful record breakers. He’s won three Zamora trophies and Ramallets believes:”those of us who who confident in his abilities have been proved right. He just needed games to become the safe pair of hands he now is. For me it was clear that he was going to be a keeper for Barça by the way he dealt with the mistakes he made. His ability to get over these things is very important and maybe his principal virtue”.

Valdés: “Zubi, Ramallets and Sadurní are my reference points”

After eight years defending the Barça goal, Victor Valdés has developed into a very safe bet for Guardiola. His character, positioning, talent, agility and reflexes have all mead him one f the first names on the team sheet, but he still understands the need to improve and he has it very clear who are the possible maestros he needs to match: “Zubi, Ramallets and Sadurní are the historical referent points for Barça keepers – they defended the club’s colours for many years and I am full of respect for them”.

Ramallets’ backing

Although he never actually saw him play in the flesh, Valdés has a special respect for Antoni Ramallets. “the times that I’ve met him, he’s always made it clear that he trusts me in goal. Right from the start he supported me and that is a luxury for me, which I’m very happy to have”.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Barcelona TRANSFERS

FC Barcelona Transfers. File made by : Shah Hussain

» Date	Player Name	To	From	Type
8/31/10	Aliaksandr Hleb Midfielder	Birmingham	Barcelona	Loan
8/30/10	Javier Mascherano Midfielder	Barcelona	Liverpool	Full Ownership
8/28/10	Zlatan Ibrahimovic Striker	Milan	Barcelona	Loan
8/28/10	Martín Cáceres Defender	Sevilla	Barcelona	Loan
8/8/10	Álex Sánchez Benítez Goalkeeper	Zaragoza	Barcelona	Free Transfer
8/2/10	Rafa Márquez Defender	New York	Barcelona	Free Transfer
7/26/10	Henrique Defender	Racing	Barcelona	Loan
7/17/10	Miguel Luque Midfielder	Almeria	Barcelona	Full Ownership
7/16/10	Adriano Midfielder	Barcelona	Sevilla	Full Ownership
7/14/10	Thierry Henry Striker	New York	Barcelona	Full Ownership
7/2/10	Yaya Touré Midfielder	Manchester City	Barcelona	Full Ownership
6/18/10	Botía Defender	Sporting Gijon	Barcelona	Full Ownership
5/19/10	David Villa Striker	Barcelona	Valencia	Full Ownership
5/7/10	Aliaksandr Hleb Midfielder	Barcelona	Stuttgart	End of Loan
2/1/10	Keirrison Striker	Fiorentina	Barcelona	Loan

FC Barcelona Founder

The founder of FC Barcelona - Joan Gamper was born on 22nd November 1877 and died 30th July 1930.. He was a Swiss pioneer, player and club president! He founded football clubs in Spain and Switzerland! He is also known as Hans Kemper!

Hans-Max Kamper (his mother's maiden name – Haessig – is generally appended in Spanish Sourcez) was born in Winterthur, Switzerland. He was the eldest son and third of five children born to August Gamper and Rosine Emma Haessig. His mother died of tuberculosis when he was eight and the family moved to Zurich. As a youngster, Gamper was a keen cyclist and runner. Throughout his life he was a lover of all sports and, apart from football, he also played rugby union, tennis and golf. In Switzerland, he was highly regarded as a footballer and was club captain at FC Basel. In 1897, work took him to Lyon in France, where he played rugby for Athletique Union.

In 1898 he went to Barcelona to visit his uncle, Emili Gaissert, who was living there. He was on his way to Africa to help set up some sugar trading companies but fell in love with the Spanish city and decided to stay put. He would later become a fluent Catalan speaker and adopt the Catalan version of his name, Joan Gamper. As an accountant, he found work with Credit Lyonnais, the Sarria Railway Company and as a sports columnist, he worked for two Swiss newspapers. He joined the local Swiss Evangelical Church and began playing football within the local Protestant community in the district of Sarria-Sant Gervasi. He also attended the Gimnasio Solé and helped publish a magazine, Los Deportes.

The ad in Los Deportes

On 22 October 1899 Gamper placed an advert in Los Deportes declaring his wish to form a football club. A positive response resulted in a meeting at the Gimnasio Solé on November 29 and Footall Club Barcelona was born. The founders included a collection of Swiss, British and Spanish enthusiasts. It is not known, if Gamper chose the legendary club colours, blaugrana, after FC Basel or his local Club FC Excelsior Zurich. However, the other Swiss teams Gamper played for, his home canton of Zurich, and Merchant Taylors School in Crosbey, Mereyside have all been credited and/or claimed to be the inspiration. Although Gamper was the driving force behind the club, initially he chose only to be a board member and club captain. He was still only 22 and wanted to concentrate on playing the game he loved. He played 48 games for FC Barcelona between 1899 and 1903, scoring over 100 goals. His team mates included Arthur Witty. In 1900-01 he was a member of the FC Barcelona team that won the clubs first trophy, the Copa Macaya. This competition is now recognised as the first Catalan championship. In 1902 he played in the very first Copa Rel Dey final. Barca lost 2-1 to Club Vizcaya.