FC Barcelona season 2007-08

After a disappointing 2006/07 season, when FC Barcelona didn't win La Liga after leading for most of the season and were eliminated early on the UEFA Champions League, the Catalan team reinforced the squad with world-class players, like Thierry Henry, and doesn’t want to repeat last year’s experience The players are optimistic and aim to win everything this season.

Events

Players

Squad information

The squad has reasonably changed in the summer transfer window. The biggest addition was Thierry Henry, with a transfer fee of €24 millions. That equals the transfer fee paid for Samuel Eto'o in 2004, but just below the €30 millions paid for Ronaldinho in 2003. Other additions were Éric Abidal, Touré Yaya and Gabriel Milito that are part of the current start team. On the other end, some important players that were often used last season have left the club, such as, Gio van Bronckhorst and Ludovic Giuly. Barcelona still uses a great number of players developed in its youth system, 9 of 23, and have two new additions this season: Giovani dos Santos and Bojan Krkić (17 years old, the youngest player in the squad).
Most of the players have contracts beyond this end of season, but Deco, an important player, has his contract ending in 2008. The captain is still Puyol, who is from Barcelona's youth system, plays in the first squad since 1999 and currently is the player with the most appearances (268). Currently, the highest scorer is Ronaldinho with 80 goals. Also Ronaldinho, from August of this year, has an European passport. On mid-October, Samuel Eto'o received Spanish nationality, making him an EU player. The only non-EU player is Touré Yaya. However, because Spain ratified the Cotonou Agreement in 2007, Touré is now considered an EU player, as his native country of Côte d'Ivoire is a signatory to that agreement, and the 2003 Kolpak ruling extended the Bosman ruling to nations with an associate trading relationship with the EU.

Squad stats

V. Valdés and Abidal have been the only two players that have started all the matches (excepting Copa Catalunya, when Barcelona didn't use the same players as for the other competitions). Previously, Zambrotta and Touré Yaya started all the matches until they got injured. Oleguer is replacing Zambrotta and Iniesta is replacing Touré Yaya. Giovani and Bojan have been the substitute forwards, while Ezquerro played only Copa Catalunya and Gudjohnsen've appeared only once so far. Henry has often started matches since Eto'o got injured. He already scored his first hat trick wearing Barça's jersey, and he's the second goal scorer with four goals. Ronaldinho missed three matches due to an injury. But, the most outstanding player has been Messi with 8 goals in 9 appearances. He is the top scorer at the moment.

Disciplinary record

Start formations

As last season, Frank Rijkaard still starting all matches using a 4-3-3 formation.

Starting 11

This section show the most frequent starting 11 formation and players used in this season. So far, there is not much of a difference in the starting 11 from last season. V. Valdés, Zambrotta, Márquez, Xavi, Deco, Messi and Ronaldinho still part of it. Probably, because Puyol was injured from the beginning of this season until 28 September, at this moment, Milito has more starts. Abidal has been a solid substitute for departed Gio. Touré Yaya, a big signing in the beginning of this season, has started lots of matches. Eto'o got injured after one competitive match, then Henry, the second biggest transfer in England last summer, has started as centre forward.

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Players in / out

In

Out

Club

Coaching staff

This season will be the fifth consecutive season for Frank Rijkaard as FC Barcelona's manager. Even though Barça didn't win any major competition last season, the president Joan Laporta confirmed his presence for this season. All staff from last season, except doctor Gil Rodas, are remaining.

Kit

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Other information

Competitions

Overall

As in nine out of the last ten seasons, FC Barcelona is going to be present in all major competitions this season. First division, Copa del Rey in Spain and UEFA Champions League in Europe. Also, Copa Catalunya in Barça's native autonomous community of Catalonia, but using mostly FC Barcelona B's players (see matches' reports). Their goal, set at the start of the season, is to win all the possible trophies. So far, they ended as runner-ups in the less important Copa Catalunya.

La Liga

Classification

After a slow start with two draws and one win, Barcelona had improved its position in the table to second after 4 straits wins, but the first lost in the season made Barça stands fourth. However, after a string of missed opportunities, it fell to 3rd place

Results summary

Results by round

UEFA Champions League

Matches

Competitive

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Friendly

References

See also

FC Barcelona
UEFA Champions League 2007-08
La Liga 2007-08
La Liga
Copa del Rey 2007-08

External links

• FC Barcelona official website
• English Speaking FC Barcelona Supporters
• ESPNsoccernet: Barcelona Team Page
• Footballdatabase.com: FC Barcelona (Spain) profile
• UEFA Champions League
• Web Oficial de la Liga de Fútbol Profesional
• Federació Catalana de Futbol