Youth: Felipe Coutinho (Vasco da Gama)

Catalan sports paper Sport claims that Barcelona is interested in Vasco da Gama attacking midfielder Felipe Coutinho (15), who is also followed by the other Spanish top clubs. Coutinho was one of the key players from the Brazilian team that won the South American U-15 championship in November last year.

Although Vasco da Gama has been trying to tie down the Brazilian youth international, his family is aware of the interest of several clubs and would have decided to make the move to Europe in the summer. Coutinho's father and brother are acting as his agents and are monitoring the offers coming in from European clubs.


Read more:
Youth: Erick Flores (Flamengo)
Youth: Gai Assulin
Youth: Diego Polenta (Danubio)

Ex-Barça: Romario retires

He has don it before, but this time it could be for real. At the presentation earlier this week of a dvd compilation with almost all the goals he scored during his career, former Barcelona forward Romário de Souza Faria (42) announced the end of his career as a professional football player:

"It's officially over. My time is up. I don't have the physical condition anymore. Now it's up to the others. I've done everthing that I wanted in football. I'm happy with all the things I've done, with the shirts I have worn and the trophies I have won."

Romário played his last game last year with Brazilian club Vasco da Gama. During his career, the striker played for clubs in Brazil (Vasco da Gama, Flamengo and Fluminense), the Netherlands (PSV Eindhoven), Spain (Barcelona and Valencia), Qatar (Al-Sadd), the United States (Miami) and Australia (Adelaide).

In 1994, Romário won the World Cup in the United States with the Brazilian national team and was awarded the FIFA World Cup Golden Ball. At the end of that year, he was chosen FIFA World Player of the Year.

Arriving from Dutch club PSV Eindhoven in the summer of 1993, Romário played one and a half season for Barcelona. Due to disciplinary problems, "O Baixinho" (the little one) left for Flamengo in January of the year 1995. Romário won the Spanish league title with Barcelona in 1994, becoming that same season the top goalscorer in the Liga with 30 goals. In the same year, he won the Spanish Super Cup with the team.

Read more:
Ex-Barça: Ronald de Boer
Ex-Barça: Llorenç Serra Ferrer
Ex-Barça: Phillip Cocu

Read all ex-Barça stories here.