Due to being out all day yesterday I was unable to bring you the latest news. First, in case you haven't seen it, here is a link to Xavi's fantastic goal for Spain against the USA on Wednesday, and also you can see Messi's goal in Argentina's 4-1 win over Mexico. Of the transfer stories the big news is that Barça seem to have come to an agreement with Sevilla for the signing of Dani Alves.

Txiki Begiristain and Marc Ingla travelled to Sevilla yesterday to negotiate face-to-face with Sevilla's president Del Nido, and reports say that they have agreed an initial fee of €32 million with an extra €3 million to be paid for games played and trophies won, etc. If...

Well, I can't say this was not totally expected, Deco has seemed unhappy for quite a while. The final straw was the whistles he received at Sunday's game with Mallorca. One report says that Deco got showered and changed at half time without saying anything and Rijkaard was forced to put on Bojan as a substitute. It is a great shame that one of the great players of the last few seasons should end up leaving in this manner. However, it must be said that he has not performed well in the last two seasons and is a shadow of what he was like in his first season when he rivalled Ronaldinho as the team's most important player. He has declared a desire to play either in England or Italy. I wish him all the best. Click here for a Deco compilation video.

Barça played their last game at Camp Nou under Frank Rijkaard and managed to throw away a 2-0 lead to lose 2-3 in the last minute. Less than 40,000 turned up to see the game, and sections of the public showed their displeasure with Joan Laporta during the match and at the end when Dani Güiza scored Mallorca's third there was a bigger display of protests.

It is games such as this that makes a football fan want to give it all up. However, we should remember that there was nothing at stake for Barça tonight. What I find difficult to understand is that the crowd picked on Deco and especially Eto'o to vent their frustration. If Frank Rijkaard deserves respect for his overall achievements in five years then surely Deco and Eto'o deserve the same for being a core part of the team tha...

Barça have decided that one of the players they most want for next season is Lyon's Karim Benzema. Txiki Begiristain travelled to Lyon yesterday where he met with Lyon's Director of Sport, Bernard Lacombe, and he watched Benzema score in the 1-0 win over Metz in the French Cup.

According to newspaper reports this morning Barça are prepared to bid €3o million for the 20-year-old Benzema who recently extended his contract at Lyon until 2013. Lyon are not a club to sell cheaply, but despite their efforts their best players such as Essien or Diarra, are eventually allowed to leave.

I think Benzema would be an excellent addition to the squad. He is young and hungry, he scores with both feet, is very quick and is also good in the air. The signing, however, is not going to be easy, and I fe...

One of the greatest goalscorers of all time, Romario de Souza, has announced at the age of 42 that he is retiring. 'El Baixinho' signed for Barça in the summer of 1993 and became an immediate hit by scoring a hat-trick on his league debut against Real Sociedad. He went on to score thirty league goals that season including four more hat-tricks against Real Madrid, Osasuna and Atletico Madrid twice.

In the summer of 1994 he won the World Cup with Brazil but when he came back to Barcelona he seemed to have lost interest a bit. Johan Cruyff lost patience with him and he was sold in January 1995. In his entire career he has scored an extraordinary 1,002 goals. Click here to see some of his goals at Barça.

Barça have reached the semi-finals of the Champions League after beating Schalke 04 1-0 (2-0 on aggregate) and will now face Manchester United for a place in the final in Moscow on May 21st. However, the performance, especially in the first half left a lot to be desired. Whether the recent declarations from directors had a negative effect I cannot say, but for the first half an hour Barça played so badly it looked more likely that they would get knocked out.

In the first twenty minutes Schalke had 9 attempts on goal as Barça were completely outplayed. Schalke surprised with some neat one touch football and threatened with long shots and dangerous crosses. After 7 minutes Valdés dived to save a shot from Altintop and the ball spun up behind him and would have gone in if the keeper hadn't rea...

A goal from Bojan Krkic after twelve minutes was enough to give Barcelona a victory in the Veltins Arena in Gelsenkirchen tonight which leaves Barça very close to a semi final place in this season's Champions League. The performance was not pretty but the players showed the pride that seemed to be lacking recently to earn a deserved victory. Frank Rijkaard made just one change to the team that lost to Betis, with Milito returning to the defence in place of Thuram. Samuel Eto'o was declared fit and battled for 81 minutes on the right wing despite not looking at 100%, while Toure Yaya gave another display of total commitment to the cause before making way for Rafa Marquez to return to the team for the last twenty minues.

Barça started in much the same way as they had agains...

In a horribly cruel night for culés, Barça forgot one of football's most basic rules: that the game lasts for 90 minutes. After an excellent first half that saw Barça take a two goal lead, the team relaxed in the second half and then crumbled as soon as Betis pulled a goal back. Two late strikes saw Betis take the three points that had seemed destined for Barcelona for most of the game.

In the first ten minutes there were signs of what might come later as Barça's horizontal possession game contrasted with Betis's straight-for-goal approach. Twice Betis threatened after Barça had lost possession, but this was quickly forgotten as Barça hit back with ten minutes of superb football. Eto'o was the first to come close when he forced a save from Casto after a corner from Xavi reached him, a...

Bojan Krkic continued his excellent moment of form with a superb goal for Spain's under-21 side against Kazakhstan. Bojan scored Spain's third goal of a 5-0 victory with an overhead kick in the 32nd minute. Click here to see the goal

Barça got a much needed boost to their confidence with a 4-1 win over Valladolid at Camp Nou this afternoon, but if truth be told they didn't play much better than in the 2-2 draw at Almeria last week. With parts of the public intent on whistling the team at various points of the game it was a nervous performance from the team.

Frank Rijkaard made two changes to the team that lost at Valencia. Thierry Henry returned to the team at the expense of Gudjohnsen but gave another disappointing performance, and Sylvinho came in for Abidal and had a very good game at left back. Toure Yaya continued in midfield but once again showed that he is not fit enough to play at the level expected of him.

Eto'o, Bojan and Henry interchanged positions in attack throughout the game but Eto'o was mostly on the...