Cased closed: Santos

Corinthians left back and Brazilian international Andre Santos (26) will not play for Barcelona as of the coming season. Santos had previously been linked to Barcelona as an alternative option to Deportivo left back Filipe Luis (23) (read more here).

Fenerbahce has officially announced the transfer of Andres Santos on its official website.

Details of the deal are yet to be released. Corinthians defensive midfielder Cristian Oliveira Baroni is also included in the agreement and would also join Fenerbahce.

Read more:
Andre Santos alternative to left back position
Case closed: Asenjo

Güiza option to replace Eto'o

Catalan radio station RAC 1 claims that Barcelona could be interested in Fenerbahçe forward and Spanish international Daniel 'Dani' Güiza (28).

Barcelona manager Josep Guardiola has reportedly asked one of his players at the Confederations Cup about Güiza. It is believed that Guardiola wanted to know more about the human qualities of the player and if he could fit in the Barcelona squad.

Güiza, who signed with Fenerbahçe last summer on a four-year deal (read more here), would want to leave this summer because of his bad relationship with the Turkish club and the recent dismissal of Fenerbahçe manager Luis Aragonés.

Catalan sports paper El Mundo Deportivo claims that following the player's performance in South Africa, Zenit St. Petersburg and Manchester City have made bids of 14 million euro° and 12 million euro°respectively. Spanish clubs Valencia and Atlético Madrid are also thought to be interested.

Read more:

Guiza disregards new Barcelona rumours

Barcelona has first option on Guiza
Guiza hopes for Barcelona move to come true

Guiza disregards new Barcelona rumours

Asked about the rumours linking him with several European clubs and talking about a renewed interest of Barcelona (read more here), Fenerbahçe forward and Spanish international Daniel 'Dani' Güiza (28) has said in an interview with Turkish television channel Haber Türk that he doesn't plan to leave:

"I'm not interested in the press rumours. I am very happy here. As I said before, I have a contract for four years and I plan to stay here at least for that period. At this moment I'm not at all thinking about leaving.

Before I joined Fenerbahçe I had offers from other clubs but Fenerbahçe pushed the most and I'm happy and honoured to have come here. After I gave my word to Fenerbahçe, I received an offer from Barcelona but I rejected it and signed here.

So I can promise you that the answer when new bids will come in, will also be 'no'. The situation of Aragonés won't have an influence on this. I signed here before he did and at that time I didn't know he would also come to Istanbul as the new Fenerbahçe coach."

Read more:
Barcelona has first option on Guiza
Case closed: Guiza
Guiza hopes for Barcelona move to come true

Case closed: Guiza

Mallorca forward and Spanish international Dani Güiza (27) will not play for Barcelona as of next season, like had been rumoured over the last months (read more here).

Fenerbahçe has announced on its official website that the player will move to Turkey this summer: "Fenerbahce signs Spanish striker Daniel Gonzalez Güiza, just days after Luis Aragonés took over as coach of the Fenerbahce side. Güiza is going to come to Istanbul on Monday to sign the official four-year contract."

The transfer has been officially confirmed by Mallorca. Fenerbahçe is believed to have paid the buyout clause of 15 million euro° (plus vat).

Güiza's agent and girlfriend Nuria Bermúdez showed some disappointment about the past months of negotiations in an interview with Spanish news site El Confidencial: "Several Spanish clubs have circled around us, they told us not to sign yet, to wait some more... But we couldn't keep on waiting, we wanted something on paper. It's a shame that in his own country they don't want the European Silver Shoe. They use to pay millions for foreign players but nothing for compatriots."

Read more:
Barcelona taking part in reopened Guiza race
Case closed: Lahm
Case closed: Pjanic

Ex-Barça: Luis Aragonés to Fenerbahce

Former Barcelona manager Luis Aragonés (69) has today been appointed as the new manager of Fenerbahçe. The Spanish coach, who led the Spanish national team to winning the European championships last month, has signed a two-year deal with the Turkish club.

Arriving from Atlético Madrid in 1987, Luis Aragonés was the Barcelona head coach for less than one season. He took over from Terry Venables when the 1987-1988 season had just started and left the club a few games before the end of that same season, being replaced until the end of the season by first assistant coach Carles Rexach. Aragonés only returned to the bench two years later when he became the manager of Espanyol Barcelona. With Barcelona, Aragonés won one Spanish cup in 1988.

Read more:

Ex-Barça: Henk ten Cate

Ex-Barça: Phillip Cocu

Ex-Barça: Víctor Muñoz

New names on central defenders list

Catalan sports paper Sport reports that Barcelona is intensely looking for central defenders and claims that the club is also following Getafe central defender Daniel "Cata" Díaz (28) (picture). The Argentinian player, who arrived at Getafe last summer, would cost 8 million euro°.

Fenerbahçe's Brazilian central defender Edu Dracena (26) is mentioned as being another candidate on the (long) list.



Read more:
Looking for a central defender
How things stand: central defenders
Bruno Alves new name on central defender list

Inter offers 40 million euro for Eto'o

Rumours that Barcelona forward and Cameroonian international Samuel Eto'o (27) could be for sale spread quickly in the past weeks and interested clubs are studying the possibility of bringing in the player whose contract expires in 2010.

Tottenham was the first Premier League club being linked with Eto'o (read more here). Tottenham forward Dimitar Berbatov (27) could be offered in exchange (read more here). Catalan sports paper El Mundo Deportivo claims that also other Premier League clubs, like Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool or Manchester City, are looking at the option to join the race.

But not only English clubs want to bring in the Cameroonian forward. Catalan sports paper El Mundo Deportivo claims that Fenerbahçe has made a formal offer (read more here) that has been rejected by the player. And Italian sports paper La Gazzetta dello Sport claimed yesterday that Inter is a preparing a 40 million euro° bid for Eto'o.

pep's opinion:

someone should really bring back some calm to the club, cause now it suddenly seems like every player (except for Messi, Iniesta and Bojan) is for sale. and that's not the way to be succesful next season. after two years without a trophy, we don't have time to build a whole different team. eto'o can only leave if you can find a decent player to replace him. and looking at his scoring record, I think that's just very hard to find. we have other priorities, I think you're just creating another problem by selling eto'o. a good chat with guardiola could do wonders.

Read more:

Eto'o for sale

Eto'o not giving credits to exit rumours

Eto'o could be Fenerbahçe star transfer

Eto'o could be Fenerbahçe star transfer

While Catalan sports paper Sport claims that Inter Milan is also keeping an eye on the Cameroonian striker, Turkish sports paper Fanatik (followed by all other major Turkish media) claims that Barcelona forward Samuel Eto'o (27) could join Turkish top club Fenerbahçe in the coming transfer window.

After being linked with Barcelona forward Thiery Henry (read more here) and Barcelona playmaker Ronaldinho (read more here), Eto'o could in the end be the star player Fenerbahçe president Aziz Yildirim has promised to bring in. The president declared earlier this week: "We will sign someone who's as famous as Roberto Carlos but who is not Brazilian."

Eto'o is said to consider leaving Barcelona in the summer because of the bad times the club is going through and because of the racist attacks the player has suffered in Spain. The Cameroonian would already have contacted Galatasay central defender Rigobert Song to ask his compatriot about the Turkish league and life in Istanbul.

Former Fenerbahçe player Oktay Derelioglu was quoted in the Turkish press claiming that the Turkish champion already found a deal with the Cameroonian international: "Yes, Fenerbahçe has reached an agreement with Eto'o. Now, they are trading with Barcelona. There is a 99% chance Eto'o will be wearing Fenerbahçe's jersey next year."

Fanatik says that Fenerbahçe would have offered Barcelona 40 million euro° for the player but that Barcelona rejected the bid. Madrid sports tabloid Marca claims that Fenerbahçe could be willing to higher the bid up to 90 million euro*, a sum that was originally made available for the transfer of Ronaldinho (read more here). Player's agent and Fenerbahçe trust person Dino Pasalic, who brought Roberto Carlos to Turkey, is said to be involved in the negotiations.

Read more:
Fenerbahce wants Ronaldinho
Eto'o for sale
Fenerbahce wants Henry

Everybody wants Ronaldinho

It becomes more and more clear that Barcelona playmaker Ronaldinho (28) will be the centre of the coming transfer summer, with all kinds of speculation, rumours and comments. It also seems that Barcelona's fear that no club would be interested anymore in Ronaldinho, was somewhat besides the truth. The usual suspects - AC Milan and Chelsea - are back (read more here and here), but also other clubs are keeping an eye on the player. An overview:

- Catalan sports paper Sport claims that Atlético Madrid defensive midfielder and former Barcelona player Thiago Motta, a close friend of Ronaldinho, called the Brazilian a week ago and tried to convince him to join Atlético. Ronaldinho kindly rejected the offer saying that Barcelona will have to move first. Atlético Madrid president Enrique Cerezo said this week in an interview with Spanish radio station Cadena COPE that his club could sign a player like Ronaldinho: "We have enough money to pay what would be needed for that."

- São Paulo striker and Inter Milan loan out Adriano (26) reacted cautious to the rumours about a possible summer move to Barcelona in a kind of swap deal including Ronaldinho (read more here). In an interview with Italian sports paper Tuttosport the Brazilian said: "Of course it would be nice to play for a club like Barcelona, but it is not something I'm thinking about now. After I have returned to Italy, I will see what will happen."

- Asked about the rumours linking Ronaldinho with his club (read more here), Fenerbahçe manager Zico said in an interview with Catalan radio station Catalunya Ràdio that, if possible, he would without any doubt sign his compatriot: "I'm an admirer of Ronaldinho and the Fenerbahçe president is too. Notwithstanding his current situation, every team would like to have him, including us. He would make our team better, like Roberto Carlos has done."

- Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon said on Thursday in an interview with Italian newspaper Il Corriere dello Sport that if he could bring one player to Juventus, it would be Ronaldinho: "I would take a player like him straight away if the price would be accessible, which I don't think is the case." Roberto de Assís yesterday thanked the Italian international today in the same paper for his kind words in this difficult times: "His words prove that the great football players still admire Ronaldinho and want to play with him." For the paper this is enough to conclude that Juventus has now also officially joined the race for Ronaldinho.

- British tabloid The Daily Mail claims today that Manchester City has joined the race for Ronaldinho. Manchester City president and Thai billionnaire Thaksin Shinawatra would have been contacted by intermediaries and alerted to contact Barcelona and the player's agent about a possible deal. Although it's unclear how much money Manchester City manager Sven-Göran Eriksson will be able to spend in the summer, sources in Italy report that Milan believes the City interest is serious and that the club has therefore increased their efforts to close the deal shortly.

(read everything on the Ronaldinho transfer story here)

Fenerbahçe wants Ronaldinho

In an interview with Madrid tabloid Marca, Fenerbahçe left back defender and former Brazilian international Roberto Carlos claims that his current club is interested in the transfer of Barcelona playmaker Ronaldinho (28). Fenerbahçe president Aziz Yildirim would be ready to make an offer of 90 million euro (°) for the Brazilian international.

Fenerbahçe wants Henry

Catalan sports paper El Mundo Deportivo reports that Turkish top club Fenerbahçe is following the steps of Barcelona forward Thierry Henry (20), who has made clear recently that he feels unsettled in Barcelona (read more here). In the Turkish press, Fenerbahçe president Aziz Yildirim is quoted saying: "We want to sign a first class star and the chosen one is Henry." It is expected that the Champions League quarter finalist will make a concrete offer for the French international in the coming days.