Barcelona considers selling Hleb

Madrid sports tabloid As claims that Barcelona attacker and Belarus international Alexander Hleb (27) could leave the club in the summer (read more here).

Although Barcelona manager Josep Guardiola still supports the player, the club is considering to sell Hleb after only one season. Several English clubs would be interested to sign him.

Catalan sports weekly paper Gol claims that both Barcelona sports director Txiki Begiristain and Barcelona manager Guardiola are unhappy with the recent attitude and statements of Hleb.

The club would be willing to let the player go if another team would ask for him during the next transfer window.

Read more:
Guardiola denies Van Persie-Hleb swap offer
Hleb: "I know that scoring is my problem"
Hleb could already leave this summer

International: Only Marquez plays 2010 qualifier

Eleven Barcelona players could play with their national team today. With the exception of Márquez, who will play a World Cup qualifying game with Mexico, all the others games in which Barcelona players are involved are friendlies.




3:30 pm
Cáceres
Libia–Uruguay

4 pm
Gudjohnsen
Liechtenstein–Iceland

5:30 pm
Touré
Turkey–Ivory coast

7 pm
Eto'o
Cameroon–Guinea

9 pm
Abidal, Henry; Messi
France-Argentina

10 pm
Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta
Spain-England

2:15 am
Márquez
United States–Mexico

The dizzying journey of Sergio Busquets

source:
El Periódico





SERGIO BUSQUETS COMPLETES A DIZZYING JOURNEY THAT BROUGHT HIM IN 8 MONTHS FROM THE FOURTH DIVISOIN TO THE NATIONAL TEAM

The player, only 20 years old, fuses the style of Barça with street football

Javier Fernandez has been left alone coaching the Badia Juvenil team this season. The team, that's a fact, is doing great. They are the leaders of their league. But Sergio, his nephew, can not help as he had promised at the start of the season. "I will be your assistant," said Sergio excited. The young boy, 20 years old, responsible, a fanatical football fan and a die-hard culé - he loved Figo until he betrayed him to dress in white - is the who idolized Xavi since he was a child and who is now playing at his side. Sergio Busquets, Javier's nephew, can not go to his own town every weekend because eight months ago he embarked on a dizzying journey from Badia to the Spanish national team.

And, of course, he has no time for anything. A year and a half ago, Sergio didn’t play in the Tercera because he began the season injured. He did not want to put his family name on the shirt and so he decided to only use the letter B, from Busquets, for his father, and from Burgos, for his mother. A year ago, Guardiola opened the door of Barcelona B and six months ago, that of Barça. Every day is busier than the last. "If you stop and think calmly, you cannot understand what has happened. Since he was a child one could see that he was going to be a professional football player", said Javier Fernandez on a cold winter’s night after coaching his team.

"Intuitive and simple"
Alongside Javier, leaving an anonymous lonely field in Badia, is Aitor Busquets. He is the brother of Sergio, the other son of Busi, the “goalkeeper without hands", as he was defined by the French newspaper L'Equipe. None of them have followed the path of their father. Aitor is a left-winger and plays at Badia. Sergio is a skilled midfielder. And he amazes everyone. Guardiola was the first. "He is intuitive, he knows what he needs to do, his game is simple, he doesn't lose the ball... But he has room for improvement," says the coach.

In September, the day that he debuted with a tie at the Camp Nou against Racing (1-1), Cruyff’s eyes were illuminated. Hours later, his article in the newspaper announced something big. "Technically superior to Toure and Keita. Positionally, he seems like a veteran. With or without the ball. With the ball he made what is difficult look easy: he disposes of the ball with one or two touches. Without the ball, he gives us another lesson: that of being in the right place to intercept and running just to recover the ball. And all that while being young and inexperienced. The same sins of his coach", wrote Johan. Back then, nobody believed in Sergio or in the young and inexperienced Guardiola.

Rejected in a test
Sergio, as a child, and despite being the son of, did not pass a test at Barça. And so he left for other fields (Badia, Barberà, Lleida and Jabac Terrassa). There, Rodri, ex-blaugrana player and ex-blaugrana coach, a wise men with a hoarse voice, tortured the ears of Barcelona youth coach Quique Costas every week. "Come, you have to see the son of Busi! You have to see him!" Finally, after much insistence, he went to see him and brought him back to play with the Juvenil team. From being a child that no one wanted, now they were going out to look for him. He rose from the earth to heaven.

The rest is known: he graduated to the first team, his contract has been renewed until 2013, with a buy-out clause of €80 million, he plays defensive pivot, a position that he revolutionized. In the past, small, imaginative and creative players came out of La Masia (Xavi, Iniesta, Cesc ...). Now it is him. Tall (1.89 m = 6’2), powerful, capable of fusing the Barça style (thinking before you touch the ball) with the football of the neighborhood, of the street: he has provoked 18 yellow cards and two expulsions from his rivals.

Translated by: Andrew


Read more:
First international call-up for Piqué and Busquets
OFFICIAL: Busquets renews until 2013

Barcelona scouting at South-American U20

Catalan sports paper Sport claims that Barcelona scouts are present at the South-American under-20 Championship that is played in Venezula these days.

In the first scouting reports the club's sports department has received, two players would stick out: Internacional forward Walter Henrique da Silva (19 - Brazil) and Nacional attacking midfielder Nicolás Lodeiro (19 - Uruguay - picture).

The paper claims that Barcelona is also still interested in Grêmio attacking midfielder Douglas Costa (18 - Brazil) (read more here). Asked about the rumours linking the player to several European top clubs, Douglas' agent César Bottega has said in an interview with Italian football site Calcio Mercato that there's nothing concrete yet: "We didn't yet speak with a club, we only know that several scouts are following him but at this moment there's nothing official."

British tabloid The Daily Mail meanwhile claims that Barcelona is one of the European top clubs that have sent scouts to the tournament to watch Deportivo Anzoátegui left midfielder Carlos Fernández (18 - Venezuela), who is represented by British -based agent Barry Yeubrey.


Watch this video of Walter:




Watch this video of Lodeiro:

International: Keita released by Mali

Barcelona midfielder Seydou Keita has found an agreement with the national football federation of Mali. The player was in France to play a friendly game against Angola tonight but received the persmission of the national team coach to return to Barcelona.

Keita was this morning one of the eight first team players (Valdés, Pinto, Jorquera, Sylvinho, Víctor Sánchez, Pedro, Hleb) who trained together with the Barcelona Atlètic squad. Puyol, who is recovering, has been doing some running. Barcelona manager Josep Guardiola, who had given his players two days off, lead the session together with Barcelona Atlètic coach Luis Enrique.