FC Barcelona News: 4 July 2015; Martin Montoya Loaned to Inter, Josep Maria Bartomeu Confirms Arda Turan Plans

Martín Montoya joins Inter Milan on loan | FC Barcelona
The FC Barcelona player Martín Montoya Torralbo has been loaned to the Italian club FC Internazionale Milano for one season. The two clubs have agreed that the loan contract shall be automatically renewed for a further season if the player appears in a certain number of games. At the end of the second season, Inter shall retain an option to sign the player on a permanent basis.

10 years since Argentina and Leo Messi won U20 World Cup | FC Barcelona
This Thursday marks one decade since a young Leo Messi, just 18 at the time, helped Argentina to victory in the U20 World Cup. By this time, he had already made his first appearances for the FCB first team and was the man on whom his country’s hopes rested at the tournament played in Holland in the summer of 2015.

United States tour campaign revving the engines | FC Barcelona
After the club won its second treble, there are just a few days to go before a new preseason commences, with Luis Enrique taking his team on a tour that will visit Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington DC and Florence. Just a few weeks before the FC Barcelona first team reports back for duty, ‘The Unstoppables’ campaign has been launched to promote the US Tour.

Chelsea, English Premier League winners, eye Champions League | FC Barcelona
José Mourinho is entering his second season at Chelsea after last year's return to the English capital. The team, owned by Russian tycoon Roman Abramovich, is the reigning Premier League and Carling Cup and, this season, will have the UEFA Champions League title as their main objective.

Manchester United, a team looking to reign again | FC Barcelona
Former Barça manager Louis Van Gaal is about to start his second season in charge of Manchester United, who Barça meet on 25 July in the second match of their American Tour. After finishing fourth in the Premier League last season to go into the Champions League, the side from Old Trafford have strengthened their squad by signing the promising Dutchman Memphis Depay as they seek to dethrone the current champions of England, José Mourinho’s Chelsea.

Barca retain Gerson first option? | Football Espana
Barcelona have retained their first option on Gerson after Fluminense rejected Juventus’ €16m bid for the midfielder, according to the Spanish Press. The Bianconeri have long been admirers of the 18-year-old, but it is understood that Barca director Raul Sanllehi and South American representative Andre Cury travelled to Brazil to discuss the rival offer.

Barcelona transfer news: I plan to sign Arda Turan, says presidential hopeful Bartomeu - Goal.com
Barcelona presidential candidate Josep Maria Bartomeu has confirmed that he is planning to sign Atletico Madrid forward Arda Turan. The Turkey international has already confirmed he plans to quit Atletico Madrid this summer and the Liga champion have emerged as the heavy favorite for his signature.

Who is Liverpool new boy Bobby Adekanye? We profile the former Barcelona starlet | Football News | Sky Sports
Understanding Adekanye’s move to Liverpool requires a look back to when he was plucked from Ajax’s youth academy by Barcelona as a 12-year-old in 2011. Adekanye became one of seven foreign youngsters whose moves to the the club were deemed illegal by FIFA after a 12-month investigation into their youth recruitment policy.

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La Liga News: 4 July 2015; Dani Parejo Signs Valencia Extension, Sevilla Complete Another Signing

Spanish 18-year-old defender on Real Madrid radar | Realmadridnews.com
Zaragoza defender Jesus Vallejo has caught the attention of Real Madrid directors, according to Spanish sports newspaper Marca. The 18-year-old has impressed many this season in the Spanish second division, leading Zaragoza to the final round of the promotion play-off and becoming the second youngest captain among all European major leagues.

Madrid let two leave | Football Espana
Real Madrid have allowed defender Derik Osede to leave the club, while midfielder Sergio Molina is set to join Stoke City. Writing on his personal Instagram account, Derik confirmed he was leaving in search of "a new adventure" but thanked Los Blancos for allowing him to experience "the best moments of my life".

Caio turns down Atleti move | Football Espana
The Rodrigo Caio saga has taken another twist, with Sao Paulo announcing that the midfielder has rejected a move to Atletico Madrid. The 21-year-old appeared set to join Los Colchoneros after his agent confirmed that a medical had been successfully undertaken on Tuesday, but he has now taken issue with the club’s preference to sign him on an initial loan.

Sevilla to sign Sergio Escudero from Getafe - ESPN FC
Sevilla announced on Friday they have reached an agreement with Getafe to sign Spanish left-back Sergio Escudero for an undisclosed fee, subject to a medical. Escudero, who started in 26 league games to help Getafe defend their Primera Division status last season, will put pen to paper on a four-year contract with the Europa League winners.

Valencia captain Dani Parejo signs new contract - ESPN FC
The 26-year-old former Real Madrid midfielder, who joined Valencia from Getafe in 2011, expressed his delight on the club's official website. "This is one of the happiest days of my life," he said. "This was what I wanted. Everybody knew this and I was always confident that we would reach an agreement. I have always said that there is no other club at which I could be happier.

Villarreal land Osasuna GK, Ander Cantero. - Villarreal USA
Osasuna decided to loan Cantero last season given that he was third choice behind Asier Riesgo and Roberto Santamaría. Cantero spent last season playing for Zamora CF during the first half on the season, and then he was loaned to Real Madrid C in the winter transfer window. Cantero went on to train with Madrid's first team.

Rayo Vallecano kit gets praise debate in Spain Sid Lowe - ESPN FC
The club from the Vallecas, the working class neighbourhood out to the east of Madrid, unveiled their kits for the new season this week and on their second shirt the rayo, or lightning bolt, had been replaced by a rainbow stretching from shoulder to waist, each colour representing the club's support for what they described as society's "anonymous heroes."

Official: Murillo leaves Granada for Inter | Football Espana
Inter have completed the signing of Jeison Murillo from Granada for a reported €10m. The Colombian defender, 23, agreed the transfer back in February but only now has put pen to paper on a five-year contract with the Nerazzurri.

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2015-16 FC Barcelona Season: Preseason in Dates

Everything you need to know about FC Barcelona 2015 preseason.

The 2014-2015 season has barely had time to fully sink in, but the 2015-2016 season in just around the corner, with the first competitive game for FC Barcelona, the first leg of the Supercopa de España, possibly coming as early as August 8 - the official date hasn't been announced yet due to a disagreement between the league and the players' association about the La Liga start date. It is one of the shortest preseasons in recent memory, regardless if the league starts on August 15 or August 22., due to the (very) late date of the UEFA Champions League Final.

Currently all Barça players are still on vacation, but a date has been set for the players' return, which will mark the beginning of the preparations for the new season. The date is set for Monday, July 13, when everybody will go through physical and medical testing, that will be follower by a week of training sessions. Players that took part in the Copa America, Lionel Messi, Javier Mascherano, Claudio Bravo, Dani Alves and Neymar, have permission to join the club at a later date, though Neymar is expected to take part in the North American tour of friendlies as well.

As part of the 2015 International Champions Cup, the team will embark on the trip to California on Sunday, July 19, where they will three days later, on July 21, at 9.00pm PT, take on the Los Angeles Galaxy at the legendary Rose Bowl stadium in Pasadena. On Saturday, July 25, Barcelona's second preseason friendly will be played at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California against Manchester United at 1.00pm PT. Four days later, on July 28, at 8.00pm ET, Barcelona will square of against Chelsea at FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland. This will conclude Barcelona's North American part of the tour, but not the preseason. Barcelona will play one more friendly game in Florence, Italy, at the Artemio Franchi stadium against home team, Fiorentina, on August 2 at 9.00pm CET.

After the game against Fiorentina, Barcelona will return home, to play for the 2015 Joan Gamper Trophy. The game is expected to be played on 5 August, though the date has yet to be confirmed, and the opponent is at this point still unknown, but the Catalans are hoping to secure an Italian team to play for the trophy.

Date and Time	Home Team	Away Team	Venue
22 July 2015, 5.00am CET	Los Angeles Galaxy	Barcelona	Rose Bowl, Pasadena, CA, USA
25 July 2015, 10.00pm CET	Manchester United	Barcelona	Levi's Stadium, Santa Clara, CA, USA
29 July 2015, 2.00am CET	Barcelona	Chelsea	FedEx Field, Landover, MD, USA
2 August 2015, 9.00pm CET	Fiorentina	Barcelona	Artemio Franchi, Florence, Italy
TBA	Barcelona	TBA	Camp Nou, Barcelona, Spain

Note: Dates and time in table are according to Barcelona time (CET), dates and time in text above are local time.

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Official: Martín Montoya loaned to Inter Milan

It's officially time to say goodbye to Monty.

Martín Montoya, the under-appreciated Barcelona full-back, has been moved to Italy to play for Inter Milan next season, with a second year option. The 25-year-old has passed his medical tests on Friday morning, and the deal has already been signed.

Barça's website announced the news:

The FC Barcelona player Martín Montoya has been loaned to the Italian club FC Internazionale Milano for one season.

The two clubs have agreed that the loan contract shall be automatically renewed for a further season if the player appears in a certain number of games. At the end of the second season, Inter shall retain an option to sign the player on a permanent basis.

That signing option on the final year is for a total of €8 million, which is frankly a good enough amount to get for a guy who has played so little for Barça.

He scored only two goals in his short, 66-game career with the Blaugrana. However, his resumé is impressive: two La Liga titles, one Champions League, a Copa del Rey and a Spanish Super Cup in four first team seasons. That's roughly one title for every thirteen games played. Whoa.

Goodbye, Monty.

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FC Barcelona La Liga Overview: Top Passers Infographic

A look back at the top passers of Barcelona's 2014-2015 La Liga season.

The days of "tiki-taka" might be in the past, days in which numerous Barcelona players would finish the game with over 100 passes are all but gone, though they do return on occasion, but Barcelona's passing was arguably more deadly this season than it was in seasons past. Barcelona was much more decisive with their passes, the passes were quicker and much more direct, leading to quicker transition from defense to attack, lowering the need for seemly endless sideways passes. This increased the number of "good passes", which, as defined by our good friends at SportsMatrix, are passes that improved the team's position on the pitch. Any pass that did not improve the team's position won't appear in this stat, even if it was an accurate pass.

It really should come as no surprise that Lionel Messi excelled in this category, as almost every third pass he made improved the teams position. Andres Iniesta and Xavi weren't far behind Messi in percentages, but both made more "good passes" than the Argentine because both also made more passes per game. in fact, Xavi led all Barcelona players in passes, by some margin in fact, ending the season making ten more passes than the next guy on the list, Iniesta. Interestingly, even though Jordi Alba and Ivan Rakitic made many passes, both missed out on the "good passes" chart by some distance. Dani Alves also missed out on the "good passes" chart, even with a healthy 19% "good pass" rate. The Brazilian finished just behind Busquets, on the outside of the chart looking in.

As you've probably noticed, I skipped the first part of the infographic and first focused on the second part. To talk a bit about the top passing combinations; three of the top five include passes to Messi, slightly reinforcing the "when in doubt pass to Messi" mantra. The top two combinations both feature full-backs passing to the wide-playing forward - 22.6% of all passes that Alves made went to Messi while "only" 19% of Alba's passes were to Neymar. It's a similar situation in the "good pass" combinations. Messi is this time featured four times, three times as a receiver, once as the passer, while Neymar is involved in three instances, twice as receiver and once as passer. Interestingly though, Messi is not involved in the most frequent "good pass" situation, that one includes Iniesta as the passer and Neymar as the target.

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FC Barcelona News: 3 July 2015; Liverpool Complete Signing of Barca Youngster, Martin Montoya Passes Inter Medical

Famed Rose Bowl to host FC Barcelona v LA Galaxy | FC Barcelona
The Rose Bowl, one of the most famous outdoor stadiums in American sporting history, and one which has hosted a plethora of major sporting events since it was built in 1922, will open its doors once again to international football when FC Barcelona arrive in Pasadena, California to take on the Los Angeles Galaxy in Match Six of the 2015 International Champions Cup on Tuesday, 21 July at 8.00pm PT (5.00am CET on Wednesday, 22 July).

FC Barcelona has history versus International Champions Cup rivals | FC Barcelona
FC Barcelona's 2015/16 season will start off with a preseason tour of the United States, where they will participate in the 2015 International Champions Cup and square off against some familiar faces. Barça play the Los Angeles Galaxy at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California on 21 July, followed by Manchester United at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California on 25 July, and then Chelsea at FedExField in Landover, Maryland on 28 July.

FC Barcelona quiz: Copa América edition | FC Barcelona
Test the depth of your knowledge of the prestigious tournament leading up to Saturday’s Final featuring blaugrana stars Claudio Bravo, Javier Mascherano and Lionel Messi.

How Messi, Mascherano and Bravo got to the Copa América Final | FC Barcelona
Leo Messi, Javier Mascherano and Claudio Bravo shared the Barca dressing room and celebrated the 2014/15 Treble together. But this Saturday the Barça three players face off in the final of the Copa América, and once the game is over, only two Argentina players or one Chilean goalkeeper will celebrate a new title.

Martín Montoya passes Inter Milan medical Inside Spanish Football
Montoya arrived in Milan on Wednesday ahead of his medical on Thursday morning, where the 24-year-old will finally join the Italian Serie A giants after weeks of negotiations. Several days ago, Montoya’s agent Juan De Dios Carrasco confirmed the right-back would be leaving the Camp Nou to join Inter Milan on a two-year loan but was waiting for the committee’s stamp of approval.

La Liga news: Arda Turan denies signing for Barcelona - Goal.com
Atletico Madrid winger Arda Turan has moved to deny reports he has already agreed to join Barcelona. The 28-year-old's agent has already confirmed the player will leave the Vicente Calderon this summer and the Turkey interntional himself has posted a farewell message to Atleti supporters.

Liverpool sign winger Bobby Adekanye from Barcelona - ESPN FC
Liverpool have signed 16-year-old starlet Bobby Adekanye from Barcelona on a free transfer. Adekanye was born in Nigeria but moved to Amsterdam in the Netherlands when he was four and arrived at the Camp Nou from Ajax in 2011.

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La Liga News: 3 July 2015; Sevilla Deal Carlos Bacca, Land Yevhen Konoplyanka, Javier Manquillo To Return To Madrid

Madrid miss out on Llorente? | Football Espana
Real Madrid’s hopes of launching a late bid for Fernando Llorente have been dealt a blow as the Juventus striker is set to join Monaco. Los Blancos understood to be on the lookout for attacking reinforcements, and AS reports Los Blancos were ready to launch an 11th-hour bid for the Spaniard.

Real Madrid must pay record fee for David De Gea - sources - ESPN FC
Manchester United will keep Real Madrid target David De Gea for a further year if they do not receive a world-record transfer fee for a goalkeeper, sources have told ESPN FC. United are willing to run the risk of losing the 24-year-old Spain international on a free transfer rather than sell him on the cheap.

Man Utd target Nicolas Otamendi is not joining Real Madrid - ESPN FC
Nicolas Otamendi will not be signing for Real Madrid this summer, his agent has insisted. Otamendi, 27, has four years left on his contract with Valencia but announced last month his wish to leave the Spanish club.

Lucas Vazquez rejoins Real Madrid from Espanyol - ESPN FC
Real Madrid have announced that they have brought Lucas Vazquez back to the club for the next five years after exercising their buyback clause on his contract with Espanyol. Vazquez, 23, spent last season on loan at Espanyol from Los Blancos, scoring four goals and recording six assists in 39 appearances, before the club opted to secure a permanent transfer.

Manquillo set for Atletico return - Inside Spanish Football
Liverpool defender Javier Manquillo could be set to return to Atletico Madrid after just one year into his two-year loan spell. Manquillo signed a two-year loan deal with the Merseyside club in August 2014, but made just 10 League appearances during 2014-15, finding it difficult to displace regular first choice right-back Glen Johnson and Kolo Toure from Brendan Rodgers’ starting XI.

Gaitán knocks back Atlético interest
Atlético Madrid have been dealt a blow in their pursuit of Arda Turan’s replacement after winger Nicolás Gaitán expressed his desire to see out the remaining three years of his Benfica contract. The Spanish outfit have already had an offer of €30m – €5m less than his release clause - rebuffed by Benfica and had planned more negotiations over the weekend in order to thrash out the deal.

Sevilla announce transfer of Carlos Bacca to AC Milan - Inside Spanish Football
In the announcement posted on the club’s official website, Sevilla confirmed the transfer of Carlos Bacca to AC Milan after a week’s negotiating. "Sevilla FC have reached an agreement with AC Milan for the transfer of Carlos Bacca, following the medical tests in the coming days."

AC Milan to sign Sevilla star Carlos Bacca pending medical - ESPN FC
AC Milan have announced that they have reached an agreement to sign Sevilla striker Carlos Bacca, subject to a medical. Bacca, 28, who was also a target for Liverpool, had a €30 million buyout clause in his contract that Sevilla president Jose Castro insisted any interested parties would have to meet.

Yevhen Konoplyanka set for Sevilla medical after agreeing terms | Sky Sports
Sevilla have announced an agreement with Yevhen Konoplyanka to sign the Ukraine winger from Dnipro, subject to a medical. But the club have also stated they have not yet reached a full settlement with his former club. The 25-year-old enjoyed a superb season for Ukraine Premier League's third-place finishers, starring in their journey to the Europa League final, where they were beaten by Sevilla.

Sevilla full-back Benoit Tremoulinas flattered by PSG link - ESPN FC
Sevilla full-back Benoit Tremoulinas has told RMC he is flattered by interest from Paris Saint-Germain. With Lucas Digne expected to leave the Parc des Princes this summer, Tremoulinas, 29, has been mentioned as a potential replacement to provide quality backup for Maxwell at left-back.

Chan begins work at Valencia | Football Espana
There are claims that Salvo was ousted, along with sporting director Francisco Rufete and technical secretary Roberto Ayala, for disagreements with owner Peter Lim and his board. However, the 62-year-old’s aide has maintained the patron vacated his role for family reasons and that the latter pair followed him out of Mestalla as a sign of loyalty.

Work-permit rules set to cost Swansea dear as Villarreal chase Borre | The Swansea Way
This does seem a shame. Swansea’s loss looks set to become Villarreal’s gain with talk that Columbian youngster Rafael Borre is edging closer to a move to the Spanish club. Swansea were thought to have agreed a fee of around £3million for the nineteen-year-old striker with his current side Deportivo Cali, but as he didn’t meet work permit regulations it now seems he’s likely to move elsewhere.

Deportivo linked with Michu | Inside Spanish Football
Michu has fallen from favour at Swansea following a breakdown in relations with the club, and the club were set to sell the former Rayo Vallecano man to Napoli this summer following his loan spell at the Stadio San Paolo. However his performances in Italy were far from impressive, as Michu struggled with an ankle injury and strong competition in the Napol forward line, and subsequently Napoli declined to make the loan into a permanent deal.

Getafe: Medran joins, Velazquez stays | Football Espana
Getafe President Angel Torres has confirmed 2015-16 loans for Real Madrid midielder Alvaro Medran and Atletico Madrid defender Emiliano Velazquez. Medran, 21, made five appearances for Los Blancos last season, scoring once against Ludogorets in the Champions League group stage, while Velazquez, also 21, will spend another year at Coliseum Alfonso Perez.

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