Former Barca Players II - from Assulin to Zambrotta

The old Former Player thread got locked up with a request that the new one list locations of more notable departures. Not sure I have the time to do the opening thread justice, as I really just wanted to post this nice Deco article in the now closed thread: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2012/may/10/guardian-sport-network-art-deco

But I'll do my best to quickly summarize where several notables are:
Gai Assulin - ManCity but recently on loan to Brighton & Hove Albion (Championship/2nd tier England). Gai is not so notable but I wanted an "a" name to start with.
Yaya Toure - Also followed the money to ManCity (and to his credit wanted more PT too);
Edmilson - back in Brazil with Cesara, nearing retirement;
Deco - Fluminese in Brazil (Belletti retired at Fluminese last year - 2011)
Ronaldinho - Flamengo in Brazil
Giuly - Monaco
Riquelme - Boca Juniors in Argentina
Hleb - FC Krylia Sovetov Samara in Russia
Eto'o - Anzhi Makhachkala in Russia
Motta - PSG
Maxwell - PSG
Romeu - Chelsea (we have a buy back right)
Botia - Gijon (we have a cheap buy back right, expected to exercise then move him elsewhere)
Bojan - Roma (we must buy back next summer -2013)
Maxi Lopez - Milan (on loan from Catania)
Ibrahimovic - Milan
Zambrotta - just played last game for Milan now a free agent not expected to retire just yet.

Some other notables not in the first post:
Thierry Henry & Rafael Marquez - both with New York Red Bulls in America;
Gio van Bronckhorst - retired from Feyenoord -2010 included here as he is their assistant coach;
Gio dos Santos - still owned by Tottenham but most recently on loan at Racing Santander;
Marc Crosas - Club Santos Laguna in Mexico's Primera;
Dmytro Chygrinskiy - still back with Shaktar Donetsk - cost 10M Euros net
Henrique - back with Palmeiras (never played for Barca beyond preseason, cost 8-10M Euros plus the salary we paid parts of when he was out on loan, finally off our books);
Keirrison - still on our books, on loan at Cortiba, won't be off our books till 2014 when his 5 year contract ends, has cost us 14-16M Euros plus the parts of his Barca salary we pay, like Henrique was owned by Traffic Football Management;
Martin Caceres - at Juventus on loan from Sevilla - the 4th central defender Laporta wasted money on, we paid 16.5, got 3+1.5 from Sevilla when he was finally sold;
Gabi Milito - Club Atletico Independients - perhaps the 5th lost central defender though more due to unfortunate injuries, cost 18.5M Euros;
Eidur Gudjohnsen - AEK Athens (missed most of the seaon injured by returned in April 2012);
Rustu Recber - Besiktas in Turkey since 2007 played only 4 games for Barca;
van Bommel - going back with PSV, just finished with Milan like Zambrotta;
Victor Vazquez - Club Brugge;
Jonathan Soriano - Red Bull Salzburg;
Pepe Reina - still with Liverpool;
Xavi Torres - owned by Malaga but on loan to Levante since 2010.
Oleguer Presas - released by Ajax in 2011 and seems done though only 32 years old.

OK, that's more than enough for now. Here's a better link to the wikipedia links page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:FC_Barcelona_footballers

Posts merged by VEB.

 

Looking at this from a timeline angle here are Barca departures NOT already mentioned above from most recent to older:
Jeffren - Sporting CP not much PT there so far;
Victor Sanchez - Neuchatel Xamax;
Joquera, Sylvihno, Thuram, Ezquerro all retired;
Saviola - Benfica (initially left us on a free transfer and signed with Real);
Ruben - Malaga's #2 goalie;
Larsson - retired but coaching Landskrona BolS in Sweden;
Fernando Navarro - Sevilla;
Damia Abella - Osasuna;
Gabri Garcia - FC Sion in Switzerland;
Oscar Lopez - supposedly with Go Ahead Eagles in Netherlands but seems out of the game post Numancia;
Gerard Lopez - also seems out of the game now, last seen with Girona;
Sergio Garcia - Espanyol;
Albertini - retired from Barca;
Fabio Rochemback -Dalian Aerbin in Chinese Superleague;

and with that we've gone all the way back to 2005 - not a complete list at all as most of the departures in this period were captured in my first 2 posts. The departure list generally does NOT include those who left from our youth ranks.

In 2004 many left the squad but few are still playing, that year saw the departures of: Cocu (assistant mgr PSV); Kluivert (coaches Twente's youth side); Reiziger; Luis Garcia (still active with Puebla F.C. in Mexico); Overmars (director Go Ahead Eagles in Netherlands); Luis Enrique (just left coaching Roma); Quaresma (still active with Besiktas); Enke (tragic suicide in 2009 while with Hannover 96 and German National Team); and the end of Edgar Davids short loan from Juventus.

2003 also saw several departures, Cesc left for Arsenal from our youth ranks; de Boer left for Galatasaray then and now coaches Ajax; Bonano, Christanval, Alfonso, Andersson, Geovanni (Vitoria in Brazil), Trashorras (Rayo Vallecano), and Tortolero (Girona) all left on transfers or contract terminations - only those with teams listed are still active. Gaizka Mendiata's loan from Lazio ended.

To bring it to a full 10 year look back, in 2002 we lost Rivaldo released for free to sign with Milan as he did not get along with re-hired coach Van Gaal (retired), Pepe Reina left that year (still with Liverpool as mentioned above), as did Mikel Arteta (now Arsenal), Richard Dutruel, Abelardo Fernandez (ass't coach Gijon), and Sergi Barjuan all left.

 

Pretty sure what I have above is nearly comprehensive list of players who were on the first team for Barca in the past 10 years, left Barca (transfer, contract termination, or loan), and are still playing elsewhere. What I'd love to add is folks who left La Masia in the past 10 years or so before ever making the first team and are still playing elsewhere. Already mentioned above are Cesc and Assulin and players like Victor Sanchez and Jonathan Soriano (older players Barca B players who played games with first team but never were promoted). To those we can certainly add Pique to ManU before returning to Barca ala Cesc. But who else is out there?

Last summer Arsenal made waves by signing Jon Toral and Hector Bellerin. Also, while we've already mentioned Oriol Romeu above, Chelsea also signed a formerly highly rated Barca youth player Gael Etock (Etock was sort of overtaken by Dongou and Deulofeu as the starlet forwards of La Masia so folks Barca was not crying when Etock left).

Who else has been signed away by EPL squads or other squads which allow 16 year olds to sign "adult" contracts? And who can explain better how that rule works to the disadvantage of Spanish squads?

I did find this interesting story on a promising youngster with a year at La Masia from a young players to watch in 2012 article that also spoke of our Cuenca:
Giorgi Chanturia - Midfielder - (Vitesse)


Georgia's 'Gio' did not take long to make an impression in Europe, as his boyhood club Saburtalo accepted a one-year loan agreement with Barcelona in 2009 when he was just 16. The winger went into the Catalans' B side and scored 11 goals, but complications with his non-EU passport meant that the Spanish giants didn't take him on a permanent deal. Training with Dutch side Vitesse, he signed a three-year deal when he turned 18 in April 2011 and has got better and better since then. Scoring four goals in his first friendly, he has netted three times in 10 starts so far this season and looks capable of playing at a higher level than the Eredivisie.

 

OK, got a few more names of youth players who were signed away from La Masia, I know that there are others. Obviously, many players leave Barca B (or earlier) as there seems to not be a future for them at Barca. The big concern is the players who Barca wants to retain but whom cannot sign "professional contracts" in Spain or Italy (probably other places too) until they turn 18, and who are enticed to sign these professional contracts in England when they are as young as 16 or 17. Barca does get some compensation but not a great deal. This is what happened to Cesc (Arsenal at 16), to Pique (ManU at 16), more recently to Toral and Bellerin (both Arsenal and 16) and Etock (Chelsea at 17). All those are mentioned above and I'd like to add others.

Daniel Pacheco was another of these EPL swoops on La Masia, signed away at 16 in 2007 by Liverpool who still own him though he was most recently on loan at Rayo.

Fran Merida was similarly signed away by Arsenal at 16 in 2005. He was the subject of a lawsuit you can read about here for not honoring his "youth contract" : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/european/2323112/Fran-Merida-hit-for-2m-by-Barcelona.html Interesting suit in that Barca sued the player. I'd like to know more about that case - we won the verdict but presumably there was an appeal/settlement for a bit less. Perhaps it is poetic justice that Merida then left Arsenal on a Boswell (they wanted to retain him) for Atletico Madrid in 2010. This winter they recalled him from loan to Braga.

Ignasi Miguel was in La Masia for several years (1999 to 2004) but left for Cornelia where he blossomed and was similarly signed at 16 by Arsenal in 2008. He is still with Arsenal but getting very limited minutes.

Who else belongs here? I don't include Assulin in this particular thread as he left for ManCity at 19. Barca did want to keep him but to do so at Barca B so his contract lapsed at a time when he could have signed an "adult contract" with Barca. Here I'm more concerned with the "poaching" of our 16 and 17 year olds - primarily by English clubs which have different labor laws.

 

Absolutely the right place for any good articles or posts about former Barca players, the early posts were just an attempted overview of that universe - at least those who were still in the game (hence my not mentioning Thuram) per a request when the old thread was shut down.

 

Sad to see, he was actually the one CB we bought other than La Masia trained Pique (bought as a CB; so I'm not counting Masch and Abidal) who "worked out" with our squad, save for injuries.

 

quick update on a La Masia hopeful who never became the next big thing that some projected, still very young however so don't write him off yet:

Former (until 2010) Barcelona youth player Gai Assulin (21), released by Man City in May, has joined second division club Racing Santander​

One more thing:

 

Sad to update this a bit belatedly to add Seydou Keita to the list - left to join Dalian Aerbin in the Chinese Super League, we got no compensation as apparently his contract stipulated that he was free to leave earlier than the contract's termination (2013 IIRC) if he did not receive a specified amount of playing time.

Also I wanted to add a notable departure from the year before, Nolito, who elected to not re-sign with Barca (after only getting 2 first team games in 2010-11), and signed with Benfica instead, where he scored 15 goals in 48 games in all competitions (11 in 29 in league play). Way better than Jeffren did with in his first year in Portugal with Sporting Club de Portugal - though he was injured much of the season, and way better than Saviola did last season at Benfica (6 goals in 30 total appearances).

 

OK, this doesn't really fit the theme of former players who are still active in football (though I'm sure that several of these are - not just Maradona and Schuster when employed as coaches), going 20 years back in the way-back machine:

 

Wow, this puts Ramos's worst PK to shame - by former Barca B and Segunda pichichi Jonathan Soriano, who is leading the Swiss league in goals with 5: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/socce...produced-impressively-bad-031135605--sow.html

 

nice quote from Thuram, pity he did not have much left when he joined us, pity he had to retire with a bad ticker post-Barca but at least they found it in time:

“Everyone likes Barça’s football because when you watch it, it’s art. In my opinion, football is an art, it’s just like artists that put on shows. Also, Barça gives football a good image and that’s important. For many people, the best is who wins the most. But I like Barça because when you watch a game, you think that’s truly football. I was lucky to be here 2 years and the most important thing at Barcelona is ‘mes que un club’ because football has to be more than a game, it has to help change the way we see one another.”​

Ex-Barça and record capped French international Lilian Thuram at a press conference in the Camp Nou yesterday. He was there to promote his book “My Black Stars” in which he presents the story of 50 of his personal heroes and their contributions to confronting racism in the areas of history, sports, culture, and politics. The event was a function of the partnership between the Lilian Thuram Foundation and the FC Barcelona Foundation.


Read more: http://www.totalbarca.com/#ixzz2APz9D27H