Barcelona to appeal yellow cards for Luis Suarez, Rakitic and Vermaelen

Barcelona's continuing battle with authority has seen the Catalan club appeal against all bookings received during Sunday's 1-0 La Liga win at Athletic Bilbao.
Barca came through a tight game with all three points thanks to Luis Suarez's volley early in the second half, with Suarez himself along with midfielder Ivan Rakitic and defender Thomas Vermaelen being shown yellow cards by referee Carlos del Cerro Grande.
The Blaugrana have taken the unusual step of appealing each of these decisions to the Madrid-based La Liga offices, with an official club statement claiming that they did not accept the reasoning behind all three calls contained in the official match report.
"Barcelona has decided to appeal the yellow cards shown by referee Carlos del Cerro Grande to Ivan Rakitic (43'), Thomas Vermaelen (63') and Luis Suárez (74') in Sunday's match against Athletic Club," the statement read. "The club considers the reasons outlined in the referee's report inadmissible and has therefore appealed to the Competition Committee."

Barcelona want Neymar to retire at Camp Nou amid Man United links

Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu has reacted to rumours linking Neymar with a move to Manchester United by saying he wants the forward to spend the rest of his career at the Camp Nou and revealed that talks over a new contract will open "over the next months."
Neymar, 23, has been linked with a move to Old Trafford in recent days via reports in the British and Brazilian press, with Globoesporte talking up a potential world-record bid of £140 million being made by United while The Sun reports the total package of transfer fee and wages could amount to £240m.
Barca sources have told Catalan paper Mundo Deportivo that no bid from United has been received, nor has the player's camp been in touch with Barca's board to communicate any interest.
Blaugrana club chief Bartomeu, who along with predecessor Sandro Rosell is still under investigation for his role in the controversial deal which brought Neymar to the club from Santos two years back, told Radio Catalunya that his aim was for the forward to spend the rest of his playing days at the Camp Nou.
"We do not want [Neymar] to leave," Bartomeu said. "He is young, we want him to retire here, at our club. He must stay here."

Luis Enrique says team at 'very high-level' in opener

The Barça coach, 'satisfied' with the three points, spoke to the press following his squad's opening day victor

• Athletic Club - FC Barcelona (0-1)

"I think we started the [La Liga] championship the way we did last season, at a very high level," said FC Barcelona head coach Luis Enrique in the San Mamés press room following his team's 1–0 victory on match day one. "We kept Athletic from creating danger and I think we played a very complete match," he added.
Talking about the game in general, Luis Enrique praised the role of wing-backs Sergi Roberto and Jordi Alba in the context of the injuries to Dani Alves and Sergio Busquets.
Here are the highlights of what the coach had to say:
"Overall, I'm satisfied. We created chances, a lot more than [Athletic]. Towards the end it got tough for us, of course, because the score was so close."
"Our wing-backs are very important, both defensively and offensively. They help us stretch the field."
"They [the wing-backs] were very good, especially Sergio Roberto, who came in unexpectedly and played a very complete match. Jordi Alba too."
"We have to wait and see what the doctors say and see how the players come along. Injuries are part of football, it's a very demanding sport there is more risk [early in the season]. They don't seem serious."

FC Barcelona arrive in Bilbao to kick off the league season

The 18 players named in the squad are in Bilbao for the opening game of the campaign in San Mamés

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• Flight to Bilbao

Ten days after the first leg of the Spanish Super Cup, the FC Barcelona first team return to San Mamés. The 18 man squad selected by Luis Enrique landed on Sunday in the Basque Country just after 11.00am CET. After resting and having lunch at the hotel, the blaugrana squad will make their way to the stadium where they will face Athletic Club Bilbao at 6.30pm CET.
This will be the third game in a row against the Basque club and therefore a good opportunity to put the Spanish Super Cup defeat behind and start off the new league campaign on a winnning note.

The dressing room ready

Barça's dressing room at San Mamés is now waiting for the team. In contrast to the Super Cup game, today FC Barcelona will wear their first strip for their first league game of 2015/16. There are three changes to the squad numbers: Sandro will now wear the number 19 and Cámara and Gumbau will wear 26 and 27 respectively.

Dani Alves' injury confirmed

Tests show that the Brazilian suffered a groin strain in the first half of the game in San Mamés

Sergio Busquets' ankle injury is nothing serious reveal examination

• Dani Alves suffered a groin strain in San Mamés- FCB

The win for Barça in San Mamés was not all good news for the blaugranes. Both Dani Alves and Sergio Busquets were substituted during the win against Athletic and on Monday morning the two players underwent medical tests.
In Dani Alves’ case, the results show that the Brazilian has a groin strain. The right was replaced by Sergi Roberto on Sunday after just 19 minutes of the game.
In contrast, the tests performed on Sergio Busquets reveal that midfielder has suffered a slight ankle injury but nothing important. The Barça number ‘5’ was replaced by Marc Bartra in the second half in Bilbao after a collision with Athletic striker Aduriz.

Pedro: Being at Barça was a dream come true

The striker bids farewell to the Club and the fans in a press conference attended by his family and his former team mates

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  Pedro says goodbye to Barça  - FCB

• Pedro's farewell press conference
• Pedro Rodríguez Ledesma

Pedro Rodríguez Ledesma has said goodbye to FC Barcelona. Accompanied by his family, his former team mates and the first team coaching staff, the man from the Canary Islands wished to “thank everybody for getting me into his great Club and for making my dream come true.” He also had words of gratitude for the Board of Directors, “for understanding my decision and for respecting it.” He continued, saying he was “very happy for all the moments I’ve been through and all the titles won” with FC Barcelona.
“Playing in this Club was a dream of mine from very young. I have always felt comfortable here (..) I have tried to learn from all the examples and legends who have passed through Barça. That has helped to guide me as a person and learn the institution’s values. I think and I hope that I have done the best I can (…) Now I am sad to be leaving my home but happy to have given everything,” he commented.

A difficult send off

Pedro Rodríguez wanted to point out that the “most difficult thing about leaving the Club is my team mates, the people who work here and the fans who have always supported me.” Furthemore, the winger admitted that he knew “like here I won’t be anywhere, because my whole life is here and Barça is the best club in the world.”
Pedro said “he wanted to have been able to retire at FC Barcelona,” and that his farewell was a very “emotional” moment for him. Despite everything, the strike confessed that he was leaving to have more regular playing time and that he was happy to be facing “new goals.”
“I will keep with me all the triumphant moments. I will take all those times shared with my team mates.”

FC Barcelona top seeded more than any club since 1999

Since the Champions League group stage was extended to 32 teams, the Catalans have been in pot number one sixteen times

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  FC Barcelona are no strangers to being top seeds in the Champions League / FCB

Top seeded teams since 1999/00

17 times FC Barcelona
15 Man United
14 Bayern Munich, Arsenal & Real Madrid
9 Chelsea
8 AC Milan
7 Inter
6 Liverpool
5 Porto & Juventus
4 Valencia & Lazio
3 Benfica
2 Deportivo & Olympique Lyon
1 Monaco, Dortmund, Atlético Madrid, Sevilla, Spartak Moscow, PSG, Zenit & PSV

Includes seeded teams in this season's edition of the UCL

FC Barcelona are one of the top-seeded teams in this week’s Champions League draw. But that’s nothing new. Since the group stage was expanded to 32 teams in 1999/00, the Catalans have always been among the eight highest ranked clubs, apart from in the 2003/04 season when they played in the UEFA Cup.
This season the seeding system has been changed. The honour no longer goes to the clubs with the highest UEFA coefficient, but instead to the champions of the leagues with the highest coefficients. That means that some of the clubs that are typically among the top seeds, such as Arsenal and Real Madrid, miss out on a place in the coveted pot number one.
The eight seeds on Thurday in Monaco will be Barça, Chelsea, Bayern, Juventus, Benfica, PSG, Zenit and PSV. It’s a completely new experience for the latter three, while Juventus have not been top seeded since the 2003/04 season.

Pole position

Being one of the top seeds seems to be an important factor in the Champions League. In the last 16 years, 56% of them have ended up winning their group, and only 14% have been knocked out. And 12 of the last 16 European champions were one of the eight seeds at the start of the group stage. That’s great news for Barça, who have been top seeded more than any other club!

For FC Barcelona, there's no place like home

In the last decade Barça's La Liga record at Camp Nou is a staggering 158 wins, 21 draws, and just 11 defeats

Messi's 160 goals there over the same period are tops on the team

• Barça scored 73 goals at Camp Nou in the 2011/12 La Liga season. / MIGUEL RUIZ - FCB

When Dorothy Gale — the main protagonist in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz — tapped her heels together three times while wearing the ruby slippers and repeating, "There's no place like home," she was magically whisked away to the comforts of her farm back in Kansas, leaving a whirlwind odyssey in her wake.
And while Camp Nou is a far cry from Kansas, it will certainly be a welcome landing spot for FC Barcelona following a globetrotting preseason schedule — with stops in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington DC, Florence, and Tblilisi — and an opening week on the road in the 2015/16 La Liga.
In looking at Barça's home opener this season in league play, which comes on Saturday versus Málaga at 8.30pm CET, it's worth taking a look at the numbers to see just how comforting Camp Nou has been to the Catalans recently in the domestic championship of the Spanish First Division.
In fact, since the 2005/06 season — when Frank Rijkaard was running the show — through Luis Enrique's title-winning campaign in 2014/15 , Barça have won 158, lost just 11, and drawn 21 in 190 La Liga games played at Camp Nou.

SEASON	WINS	LOSSES	DRAWS	POINTS
2014/15	16	2	1	49
2013/14	16	1	2	50
2012/13	18	0	1	55
2011/12	17	1	1	52
2010/11	16	1	2	50
2009/10	18	0	1	55
2008/09	14	2	3	45
2007/08	14	3	2	44
2006/07	14	0	5	47
2005/06	15	1	3	48
TOTALS	158	11	21	495

Messi leads in scoring, of course

If there's one Barça player who has essentially dedicated himself to getting the Barça fans to rise out of their seats in jubilation, that player is Lionel Messi. In the last decade Messi has scored 160 home league goals (he has 161 in his career), far above Samuel Eto'o, who is number two over the same period with 46. Here are the top nine:

PLAYER	Messi	Eto'o	Ronaldinho	Pedro	Alexis	Xavi	Villa	Henry	Iniesta
GOALS	160	46	32	31	30	25	23	21	20

And they weren't the only players who lit up the scoreboard for Barça, either. The team scored a total of 560 home league goals in the last ten years while only giving up 126.

Many of those goals led to routs. Barça's biggest win came on 17 November 2011 in an 8–0 victory over Osasuna. Two other games ended in 7–0 blaugrana victories — against Levante on 18 August 2013 and yet another versusOsasuna on 16 March 2014.

GF	GA	Top scorer	Biggest rout
64	11	Messi, 27	6-0 (FCB-Granada, Getafe)
64	15	Messi, 16	7-0 (FCB-Levante, Osasuna)
63	15	Messi, 22	6-1 (FCB-Getafe)
73	11	Messi, 35	8-0 (FCB-Osasuna)
46	10	Messi, 15	5-0 (FCB-Sevilla, Madrid, R.Sociedad)
57	11	Messi, 16	6-1 (FCB-Zaragoza)
61	14	Eto'o, 21	6-0 (FCB-Valladolid, Málaga)
46	12	Messi, 9	6-0 (FCB-Valencia)
41	12	Ronaldinho, 15	4-0 (FCB-Villarreal)
45	15	Eto'o, 13	5-0 (FCB-R.Sociedad)

Leo Messi sets another Spanish Super Cup record

Already the leading goalscorer in the competition, the Argentinian becomes first player to score in five separate editions

Called up by Argentina

Leo Messi and Javier Mascherano have both been named in Gerard Martino’s squad for the forthcoming Argentina friendlies. The first of these is on September 4 in Houston against Bolivia and the second is in Dallas on September 8 against Mexico.

Defeat in the Spanish Super Cup still did not stop Leo Messi from setting yet another record. His goal in the 43rd minute of the second leg was his 11th overall in the annual curtain-raiser to the Spanish season. He was already the leading goalscorer in the competition, already way ahead of second-placed Raul (7 goals), and former Barça stars Begiristain and Stoitchkov (both with 6).

His goal against Athletic Club makes him the first player to find the target in five different editions of the Spanish Super Cup. He also got on the scoresheet in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012.

Goals in five competitions

The goal also means he is still on course to repeat his feat of 2011, when he scored in all six competitions in which Barça featured. The only other man to have managed to do that is his team-mate Pedro, in that wonderful year of 2009.

Leo Messi has scored a total of 25 goals in different finals over the years, and no fewer than seven of those have been against Athletic Club. But Monday’s goal, unfortunately, was not enough to win him and his team another trophy.

Adidas Wants Young Athletes to Stop Obsessing Over Leo Messi

Kill your idols, as they say. Or, at least stop worshipping them so much. That's what Adidas' new inspirational 60-second spot from 72andSunny is about, though it'd be easy to get caught up in the ad's focus on soccer star Lionel Messi. 

Instead of zeroing in on well-known athletes to pitch their products—though they're still featured in the campaign—Adidas is looking to champion up-and-coming talent. 

"We live in a world where typically athletes are told to follow or emulate their heroes," said Lia Stierwalt, senior director of global communications and media for Adidas. "We want to inspire creators to defy the norm of sports today, so they can focus on shaping their own reality and ultimately create their own game." 

"In terms of marketing [championing young players' skills over star athletes'], that's a topic that's skirted by these companies, because no one wants to upset their athletes," said Glenn Cole, chief creative officer of 72andSunny in Los Angeles. "By saying we're promoting and sponsoring you, but now we're going to tell everyone to 'unfollow' you ... I think it's brave of them and the athletes involved to be willing to go there." 

Much of the new spot was stitched together from material found online, according to Cole. The agency did, however, work with Messi for a reaction shot.

Leo Messi Penalty Misses

In La Liga,the Argentine has now failed to convert five of his 43 attempts from the spot.His previous unsuccessful efforts came in 2008-2009 against Recreativo,in the goalless draw with Sevilla in 2011-2012,in 2013-2014 against Betis and last term against Levante.Overall,more than one in five of Messi's penalties for Barca have not hit the net ,with 14 of 63 being saved or going off target.

In La Liga, the Argentine has now failed to convert five of his 43 attempts from the spot. His previous unsuccessful efforts came in 2008-09 against Recreativo, in the goalless draw with Sevilla in 2011-12, in 2013-14 against Betis and last term against Levante.
Overall, more than one in five of Messi's penalties for Barça have not hit the net, with 14 of 63 being saved or going off target.

Read more: Leo Messi's penalty pain: over 20% missed for Barça - MARCA.com (English version)

FC Barcelona

Our hero from FC Barcelona is now turning in a man everyday.He has recently made a new tattoo of Jesus's face on his arm.His new tattoo has an enormous size.The tattoo cover the whole of his full sleeve.The latest news from his club FC Barcelona is that the Striker of Barcelona Pedro Eliezer Rodríguez Ledesma has left FC Barcelona and has shown more interest in joining the English Club Chelsea.Neymar the Brazilian Hero has also recently suffered from the disease known as Mumps.That is why he wasn't able to play in the Previous few matches of the Spanish Club FC Barcelona.The Mid-Fielder Dani Alves injury has been confirmed.FC Barcelona is going to take on Malaga in Camp Nou this coming Saturday.Their win against Athletic Bilbao has helped FC Barcelona to win the first three points in Liga BBVA 2015-2016.

Life of Leo Messi

Lionel Andres Leo Messi Cuccittini is a very famous and huge in world football.He is currently the captain of the Argentina National Football Team.He is also a part of the Spanish football team known as FC Barcelona.Under him the Argentina National football is now at the top of the FIFA ratings.This means it is the international football team in the world.Messi himself is the Number#1 footballer.He is also the FIFA World Player of the Year.From the age of 21 Messi has earned awards such as the Ballon d'Or and the FIFA World Player of the Year 2009.He again won the Ballon d'Or in 2010 and then again in 2011.He won the Ballon d'Or for the fourth time in 2012.He has also won the 2010-2011 UEFA Best Player in Europe Award. At the age of 24 he became the Barcelona's all-time top scorer.In September 2014,Messi scored the 400th senior career goal for club and country aged just 27.In November 2014, Messi became the all-time top scorer in La Liga and the all-time leading goalscorer in UEFA Champions League.In 2015,he has been named MVP of UEFA Super Cup.He is also up for the UEFA's 2014-2015 Best Player Award.In the FIFA World Cup 2014 the Argentine Team qualified in the Final as him captain although they lost.In La Liga BBVA 2015 FC Barcelona is 2nd on the Points Table with only one match played which they won.Their last match was with Ath Madrid in which he wasn't able to get any goal.He missed a penalty 12 yards away from the opponent's goal post near the end of first half.He has now missed about 14 penalties for Barca.Open this link to watch the video of Messi's tragic miss.
 


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