Barça B - Official: Corcoles and Verdes will leave

Barcelona has on Monday officially announced that Barcelona Atlètic central defender Héctor Verdés (25 - picture) and Barcelona Atlètic right back defender David Córcoles (24) will leave the club this summer. The contracts of both players expired this month and won't be renewed.

Córcoles, who did part of the pre-season with the first team last summer, played two seasons for Barcelona Atlètic, arriving from Valencia B, while Vérdes came over from Xerez last year (read more here).

Barcelona also confirmed the transfer of Barcelona Atlètic defensive midfielder Xavi Torres (22) to Málaga (read more here) and announced that the contract of Barcelona Atlètic forward Urbano (23), who has been playing on loan with Sabadell and Reus this season, expires and won't be renewed (read more here).

Read more:
Barça B - Official: Abraham to Cadiz
Barça B - Official: Edu Oriol (Sant Andreu)
Barça B - Official: Xavi Torres to Malaga

Calm training week in Barcelona

Due to the international matchs coming up in the next days, few first team players were present in Barcelona to take part in the training sessions.

On Tuesday, nine players (Valdés, Jorquera, Pinto, Márquez, Gudjohnsen, Sylvinho, Bojan, Pedro and Víctor Sánchez) trained together with Barcelona Atlètic.

On Wednesday, seven players (Valdés, Jorquera, Pinto, Márquez, Gudjohnsen, Sylvinho and Bojan) trained with three Barcelona Atlètic players (Gai, Solano and Rayo) and four Juvenil players (Muniesa, Dos Santos, Rochina and Bolaños). Pedro and Victor Sánchez played that day a game with Barcelona Atlètic.

On Thuesday, six players (Valdés, Jorquera, Pinto, Márquez, Sylvinho and Bojan) trained with six Barcelona Atlètic players (Nolito, Verdés, Maric, Rayo, Gai and Solano) and two Juvenil players (Romeu and Rochina). Gudjohnsen didn't take part because of stomach problems. The next training session is only planned for Tuesday.

In the meantime, the injured players (Milito, Abidal, Puyol and Iniesta) continued their recovery, while Touré travelled to Ivory Coast where the medical staff of the national team performed some medical tests. The defensive midfielder is expected back in Barcelona tomorrow.

Nineteen men included in Lyon list

Barcelona manager Josep Guardiola announced earlier today that 19 players are called-up for the first leg of the 1/8 finals of the Champions League against Olympique Lyon on Tuesday at 8:45 pm.

The list:
Valdés, Pinto,
Alves, Puyol, Piqué, Márquez, Cáceres, Sylvinho,
Xavi, Víctor Sánchez, Touré, Busquets, Keita, Gudjohsen,
Messi, Eto'o, Bojan, Henry, Hleb


Milito, Iniesta and Abidal are injured. Jorquera and Pedro are not included. The final list of 18 players will be announced later. The team has trained this morning and will travel to Lyon tomorrow. Barcelona Atlètic players Verdés, Nolito, Rayo, Abraham, Maric took part in today's training session.

Injured Puyol not in Betis list

Barcelona manager Josep Guardiola has earlier today announced a list of 19 players for the 23rd league game of the season against Betis Sevilla tomorrow.


The list:
Valdés, Pinto,
Alves, Piqué, Márquez, Cáceres, Abidal, Sylvinho,
Xavi, Touré, Busquets, Keita, Gudjohnsen,
Messi, Eto'o, Bojan, Henry, Iniesta, Hleb


Puyol, who had been working apart from the group the whole week, isn't recovered from an overburdening problem of his right quadriceps. Jorquera, Víctor Sánchez and Pedro are not inlcuded in the list. The last two will play with barcelona Atlètic this weekend. Milito is still recovering from a knee injury. Yesterday, Barcelona Atlètic players Verdés, Botía, Abraham an Joni trained with the first team.

Barcelona will tomorrow travel in the morning to Sevilla, where the game against Betis will tomorrow evening start at 8 pm.

Eto'o didn't play with Cameroon yesterday

Barcelona player Samuel Eto'o reached a last-minute agreement with his national team coach which prevented him from having to travel to South Africa.

With Seydou Keita also having found an agreement with Mali and Touré having to recover, none of the three African internationals played yesterday's friendly games with their country.

All three players participated in Wednesday's training. Barcelona Atlètic players Córcoles, Verdés, Víctor Vázquez and Xavi Torres also took part.

See more pictures about the good training atmosphere here

Five B players take part in training

Barcelona returned to training yesterday, with Alexander Hleb normally taking part in the exercises.

Because only six first team players were available, Barcelona manager Josep Guardiola called five players from Barcelona Atlètic to join the training session:

goalkeeper Oier (19 - first picture, third from the tight), central defender Verdés (24 - first picture, on the right), midfielders Fontàs (19 - first picture, fourth from the left) and Rueda (21 - second picture, on the left) and forward Nolito (21 - first picture, second from the right)

Today five other players joined the session:

midfielder Longás (24), centre forward Maric (24), defensive midfielder Xavi Torres (21), attacker Víctor Vázquez (21) and midfielder Abraham (23)

Rafael Márquez, Samuel Eto'o, Seydou Keita and Touré Yaya, who don't have to play with their national team on Wednesday, are expected to take part in the Tuesday afternoon training session.

Barça B - Official: Verdes

Barcelona has today officially announced the transfer of Xerez central defender Héctor Verdes (22), who will play for Barcelona Atlètic (previously known as Barcelona B) next season. Second division club Xerez had already announced the deal yesterday.

Verdes, who joined Xerez last year arriving from Valencia B, underwent the medical tests yesterday and participated already in the yesterday afternoon training session under coach Luis Enrique. The Spanish defender is, after Rayo, Solano and Nolito, the fourth signing of Barcelona Atlètic this summer (read more here).

In a first reaction to the club's official media, Verdes says that he doesn't consider the transfer as a step back despite going from a second to a third division team: "Joining a club like Barcelona is an important move in my career despite dropping back a league compared to last season. I see this as a little step back to then afterwards make a big step forward."

Verdes explains some more about the kind of player he is: "I'm an aggressive player with good heading abilities. I try to take advantage of my physical strength. Despite my young age I think I can bring some experience to the team and help out the younger players because I have played in the second division with Xerez. My priority now is to get to know my new team-mates and to adapt to the group as soon as possible."

Read more:

Barça B - Official: Nolito

Barça B - Official: Solano

Barça B - Official: Rayo

Barça B: Héctor Verdés (Xerez)

Xerez local football site Xerez Mania claims that Xerez central defender Héctor Verdés (24) could leave the second division club this summer and is on the verge of joining Barcelona Atlètic (previously known as Barcelona B).



Read more:

Barça B: Zaragoza asks buyout fee for Goni

Barça B: Pedro Garcia looking for Belgian club

Barça B: Still no deal with Zaragoza on Longas