Injuries, training and.. where's Pep?

Today was quite unusual day in FCB, Pep Guardiola missed training! (don't worry I will explain it), Puyol come back to Barcelona, and there were other things too, so here we go:

Let's start with not-so-intresting news, The Camp Nou is one of the main attractions in the joint Spain-Portugal bid to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cup finals. A team of FIFA inspectors visited the stadium this Wednesday to check out the facilities.


Now some very important, but not good news, I wrote ealier about injuries, but now we know what happen, both players, Jeffren and Puyol are back in BCN.

The young winger has torn a muscle in his left leg and will be out of action for approximately two weeks.Jeffren picked up the injury while training with the Spain under-21 squad.

Tests carried out at the Camp Nou on Wednesday morning confirmed that Puyol has injured his soleus muscle just below the left calf. He’ll require treatment and is doubtful for the next few matches.

I hope that our boys will be ok soon!

There was morning training of course, but this time without Guardiola. Wednesday morning’s training session was led by assistant coach Tito Vilanova, who worked with a group of thirteen players – six from the first team and seven from Barça B. Only six players were available from the senior squad - Pinto, Adriano, Maxwell, Abidal, Keita and Dani Alves – and seven from the reserves - Bartra, Fontàs , Romeu, Dos Santos, Nolito, Masip and Rochina. For the second day running, Brazilian international Dani Alves reported voluntarily for training, despite having two days off before joining up with the Brazil squad on Thursday (what a hardworking guy!). If you want to read more about it-click here.

And there are photos too:







One of the best news of the day are numbers! Yes, shirt numbers were announced today. So it's confirmed that Bojan will takeover the number’9’ while Jeffren will have his number ‘11’ shirt. In addition, there will be no number 4 or number 24 shirts. Last season they belonged to Marquez and Touré respectively. Meanwhile, the number '21' worn by Chygrynskiy has gone to Adriano while number '14' (Henry) will go to Mascherano. David Villa has taken the vacant number ‘7’. (read more here-click)
Full list here:
1 Valdes
2 Dani Alves
3 Piqué
5 Puyol
6 Xavi
7 Villa
8 A. Iniesta
9 Bojan
10 Messi
11 Jeffren
13 Pinto
14 Mascherano
15 Keita
16 Sergio
17 Pedro
18 Milito
And don't forget about our talented youth!
Jugadors del B
26 Fontàs
27 Nolito
28 Sergi Roberto
29 Víctor Vázquez
30 Thiago
31 Miño
32 M. Bartra
33 Sergi Gómez
34 Jonathan dos Santos
35 Muniesa
36 M. Riverola
37 O. Romeu
38 Oier
39 Rochina

What about our new player, Mascherano? He spoke with BarcaTV and you can read his first interview here (click)

My favourie part is "I'm coming here to learn and to be a better player. This move has to enable me to say in two or three years that I’m a better player than when I arrived”." And part about Busquets "in spite of his age, he’s already got a lot of experience. He’s a world champion. He’s been a very important player for Barça over the last year and a half and I try and watch and learn from the best. Busquets is doing a good job so I’ll try and watch him and support myself on him. This isn’t a fight between Busquets and Mascherano. In no way whatsoever. It’s a long season, there are a lot of matches and we have to be ready when it’s our turn”.

And it's hard to dislike guy who smiles in this way


The Sporting Director of Professional Football, Andoni Zubizarreta and the First Vice-President responsible for the Sports Area, Josep Maria Bartomeu, addressed a press conference at the Camp Nou on Wednesday on a wide range of footballing issues. If you like to know more click here to read full summary.


I also found out that Valdés plays in gloves and boots without sponsor's logo. His contract with Nike ended in July, and right now Victor plays in black boots and gloves without any logo.

Right now Valdés and other Spanish players (exept Puyol) participate in trainings with national team. I know that this blog is about Barca, but such photos always make me happy so I want to share with you






And finally, taaaa daaam! Answer to question of the day: where's Pep?
Guardiola is currently attending the 12th UEFA Elite Club Coaches Forum in Nyon, Switzerland. There are some photos:





Quite boring? So here is one of funny moments during Pep's meeting with press, enjoy!