The defender and midfielder have renewed until 2016, while the Argentinean will stay until 2018. Over the next few weeks, all of Carles Puyol, Xavi Hernández and Leo Messi will be signing their respective new contracts.
Cristian Tello has extended his contract with FC Barcelona until June 2016. The release clause has been fixed at €10 million. Tello, born in Greater Barcelona, is a product of the Catalan club’s school and youth system. He debuted with Barça’s first team in November 2011 and from 2002 and 2007 he played in the club’s youth ranks.
Tests have confirmed that the Chile international player has damaged a ligament in his right foot. FC Barcelona’s player Alexis picked up the injury in Wednesday’s friendly between Chile and Serbia in Switzerland.
Barça’s young centre half was officially presented this Monday at his new club Mallorca, where he will stay on loan until June 30th. The Catalan player travelled to Mallorca the same day for a medical check-up and later he was presented as a new player of the Balearic team. Fontàs suffered a serious knee injury last season.
Sis Barça players are flying to Puerto Rico to play for Spain. Valdés, Piqué, Sergio Busquets, Iniesta, Pedro and Cesc have all been called up by Vicente Del Bosque.Afellay has been picked in Louis van Gaal’s first squad, while Mano Menezes is taking Alves to the friendly between Sweden and Brazil. Messi and Mascherano are also in Sabella’s squad for a game with Germany, and Alexis Sánchez will be crossing the Atlantic for Chile’s game with Ecuador.
The FC Barcelona Captain, Carles Puyol, stated that Abidal is “in good spirits”. “He’s a strong person”, he added. “He showed strength last season and he’ll do it again now” insisted Puyol. Besides, the Barça captain doesn’t have a particular preference regarding the Champions League draw and playing against Real Madrid. Finally, he underlined that Guardiola’s decision on his contract renewal has to be respected.
FC Barcelona player will have a liver transplant in the next few weeks. Exactly a year ago, Abidal went through surgery to remove a tumour from his liver. The player recovered and was able to lift up the last Champions League title in Wembley.
Lionel Messi is the first player in the history of the Champions League to score five goals in one game. The Barça player has scored 29 goals in the European competition. Messi, despite his sublime display, was humble after the match: “The most important thing is that we won, that’s what we wanted.”
The International Federation of Football History & Statistics has named the FC Barcelona midfielder the best playmaker in the world for the fourth year in a row. Leo Messi and Andrés Iniesta are second and third behind Xavi.
No team has more candidates than FC Barcelona at the FIFA FIFPro World XI 2011. The association of professional footballers announced the final list of 55 players who are candidates for the best eleven of 2011. 20% of them are from the FC Barcelona. In 2010, Barça already had six players in the winning team.
The 21-year-old Mexican midfielder will have a buyout clause of 30 million Euros. Jonathan dos Santos started his Barça career with the Infantil B team and has worked his way up to the Barça B squad. Guardiola calls him sometimes to play wit Barça’s first team, such as in the last Champions League game against AC Milan.
Bollywood actor Ranbir Kapoor has declared himself a FC Barcelona fan and visited Barça players. Ranbir Kapoor is one of the biggest Bollywood stars. And FC Barcelona is also becoming more and more popular in India.
Barça player Gerard Piqué got injured in training and will be out for three weeks. Piqué tore fibres in his left calf muscle and will not play the European Super Cup match in Monaco against Porto next Friday evening.
This season, FC Barcelona’s first team will have eleven players that came up through the club’s youth system. Fifty per cent of the 2011/2012 team is from La Masia.
The new Barça number 4 said in his presentation that the club "has made my dream possible" and stressed that he’s fully prepared to "take on whatever role I’m given”.