David Villa joins Barcelona

[Steve 10,227]

Barcelona have completed the signing of Spanish international striker David Villa for £35 million, Manuel Llorente, the president of his current club Valencia, has confirmed.

Villa, 29, has signed a four-year deal at Camp Nou, with an option for a fifth season, after the two clubs agreed a fee.

Villa had come close to joining the Spanish champions last summer but eventually decided to stay at Mestalla to help Valencia return to the Champions League.

But Llorente admitted Valencia’s dire financial situation – the club are currently so mired in debt they are unable to continue construction work on their new stadium, started last year – had forced him to accept Barcelona’s offer.

“We have agreed the sale of David Villa to Barcelona for 40 million euros,” said Llorente. “As you know, last year he could have left but decided to stay to help the team return to the Champions League, something we have achieved brilliantly.

“But this is a good price and a necessary sale given the economic situation which the club finds itself in. Our objective is to ensure that Valencia are economically viable. We are obliged to take responsible decisions and one of those is to complete the sale of the player, who agreed with our decision. At no point has he pressured us to allow him to leave the club.”

Villa is one of Barcelona’s two principal transfer targets this summer, along with Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas, who is thought to have indicated his willingness to return to Camp Nou to his current manager Arsene Wenger yesterday.

That Barcelona, who retained the Spanish league title on Sunday evening, have moved quickly to secure Villa suggests that outgoing president Joan Laporta is keen to bequeath at least one signing to his successor.

The move has clear ramifications for the futures of both Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who is now likely to be allowed to leave Camp Nou after just one season and remains a target for Manchester City, and the Liverpool striker Fernando Torres.

Sandro Rosell, one candidate to replace Laporta, had made the signing of Torres a centrepiece of his electoral campaign but may find that manager Pep Guardiola now encourages him to strengthen other areas of the team.

Barcelona are also believed to be monitoring the Benfica duo of David Luiz and Angel di Maria, targets for Manchester City and Manchester United respectively.

telegraph

[cfc-meleady 192]

Good signing, Does this open the door for Zlatan to leave? I heard a few things about him, not sure whats going on though.

[Kostas 1,468]

We'll see how this will works out.

I wonder what will happen to Ibrahimovic,only ManCity can pay for him.

[Fulham Broadway 16,966]

Despite his age hes the one Spaniard would have liked to see at SW 6

[zolayes 14,489]

can expect to see Platini saying Barca are the new enemies of football with their excessive spending

[gary gordon 1,777]

can expect to see Platini saying Barca are the new enemies of football with their excessive spending

Only in your wildest dreams.... He will say that it was a "Great Technical Move" for the good of the game... Or some shit like that...

[We Hate Scouse 10,286]

Not a bad price! Decent buy all in all I think.

[LloydCfc 2]

Cesc will be following shortly I'd imagine..

[Term-X 7,891]

so they are spending 60m+ this summer.. if fabregas gets his way.

[caesarblues 51]

very soon Fab will join them too:whistling:

[True_Blue 469]

35 mill for a 29 year old,he can play for at least 2 more years on a top level.I wouldn't want him now since he is old and expensive.But he is used to the Spanish League and he scored for fun there,so it is a good signing for Barcelona.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

Holy shit.

[.Cee 50]

Oh, well. At least they didn't get Torres.

[We Hate Scouse 10,286]

35 mill for a 29 year old,he can play for at least 2 more years on a top level.I wouldn't want him now since he is old and expensive.But he is used to the Spanish League and he scored for fun there,so it is a good signing for Barcelona.

2 more years? How do you come to that conclusion?

[Badboy 1,526]

How a club spends 35.4 million on a pace based striker that will be 29 years of age this year is beyond me. Also i really think bojan has been fucked over in this deal as he is a very similar type player. I think this is a great chance for a club to get bojan this summer too.

[Term-X 7,891]

How a club spends 35.4 million on a pace based striker that will be 29 years of age this year is beyond me. Also i really think bojan has been fucked over in this deal as he is a very similar type player. I think this is a great chance for a club to get bojan this summer too.

exactly, barca made the same mistake with fabregas and they will do the same with bojan who will become one of the worlds best strikers in the future no doubt about it.

[chrismada9 1,948]

Oh, well. At least they didn't get Torres.

....not yet!