Former Barca Players II - from Assulin to Zambrotta

Yup, was coming here to post this too, here's a link to the story plus more photos: https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/football-legend-ronaldinho-marry-two-12587277

 

Adama Traore becomes Wolves' most expensive transfer ever, hopefully Barca get a little of the upside (a percentage of the increased transfer value is sometimes stipulated in contracts).

Wolverhampton Wanderers have signed winger Adama Traore from Middlesbrough on a five-year contract. Wolves did not provide details of the fee, but media reports said the deal was worth a club-record £18 million.

Traore, 22, spent the last two seasons at the Riverside Stadium, scoring five goals and providing 10 assists in the last campaign to be voted Middlesbrough's Player of the Season.

A product of the Barcelona youth system, Traore left the Camp Nou in 2015 to join Aston Villa, moving to Middlesbrough after a season.

 

He turned out to be a steal for us and now for his Chinese club too, but given that we sold him for a profit and for far less than we paid for Vidal, I think we did well too. Also he has had so little rest China-Spain-World Cup-China seasons that I expect him to taper off, whereas Vidal has no China or World Cup mileage. Different players but pretty similar roles for us. Weird sale but given Vidal and Arthur purchases, and Rafinha return (who INTER were supposed to buy for $35M and did not, they sure could have used him today, losing to Sassuolo 1-0), and Inter leaving us high and dry on cash we expected to have, I kinda understand the sale back to China. This assumes the Chinese club will actually complete the purchase and not Inter us come December or whenever they are supposed to convert the loan to a sale for 50M.

 

Before (and briefly after) there was Lord Paulinho, there was a Man Named Douglas, signed inexplicably, barely played, unimpressive when given chances, hard to loan out, but hey, this is a nice goal: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6s5zko

In a 3-1 loss to Trabzonspor he scored a very nice lone goal for Sivasspor, he is there on loan and when the loan ends he will have finally not be under contract to Barca anymore.

 

Crap, this is sad news i just learned, Bravo tore his achilles and will miss at least the next 6 months, leaving Man C in a bad place in terms of back up keepers (well actually this article doesn't say how bad, knowing Man C they probably have a 3rd keeper who is pretty good). Why this article talks of Cillessen is weird in that at this point why would we sell and leave ourself in a worse lurch than Man C (as we have no 3rd GK at all only Barca B players - Ortola, who was last year's 3rd G, left, so unless we have a younger GK still available whom we spoke to back in June/July it is too late): https://www.sport-english.com/en/news/barca/cillessen-isnt-an-option-for-manchester-city-6996852

 

Bojan may leave for Red Star Belgrade, where his dad played, who stunned Salzburg to advance to CL group stage, but a very tough group (PSG, Napoli and Liverpool), not sure when the transfer window in Serbian superliga closes. If it already closed than this is just a rumor from yesterday (before it closed): https://www.sport-english.com/en/news/barca/bojan-negotiating-a-move-to-red-star-belgrade-7011232

 

Even without Rafinha Betis is humming with both Bartra and Tello in the starting lineup for ElGranDerbi v Sevilla, watch here (I always use an adblocker): http://topstreams.info/tv/eleven1