You can tell we are moving towards the end of the year by the number of awards ceremonies. Last week we had the list of candidates for France Football's Ballon d'Or and now it is the turn for the other most prestigious individual award: the Fifa World Player. Fifa have released a list of 23 candidates for 2009 which includes six Barça players, Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Puyol, Henry and Ibrahimovic plus ex-blaugrana Samuel Eto'o. Compared to the Ballon d'Or list which you can see HERE the difference for Barça is the inclusion of Carles Puyol and the omission of Toure Yaya. We all know that Leo Messi is going to take...

There are a lot of questions being asked this week after Barça’s disappointing defeat to Rubin Kazan. Following on from a below par minimum victory over Almeria and the goalless draw in Valencia the main doubts seem to be aimed at our goal-scoring ability and the lack of back up to cover for injuries. There are some claims that certain players are not good enough, and also worries over a general mental tiredness.

Having scored so many goals last season it is...

No big surprise that we have six players in the final 30 for this season's Ballon d'Or. Leo Messi, Xavi Hernandez, Andres Iniesta, Toure Yaya, Thierry Henry and Zlatan Ibrahimovic have all been shortlisted for the award by France Football and there is also a place for ex-Blaugrana Samuel Eto'o. My only problem with the list is that none of our defenders have been nominated as Alves, Piqué and Puyol could all have made the list, but I suppose this just goes to show that it is the forwards and midfielders who take the glory in football.

There is the possibility that we could end up with the top three spots as Messi, Xavi and Iniesta will all receive a lot of votes but I imagine Cristiano Ronaldo will...

Uefa have named six Barça players among the twelve nominees for awards for last season's Champions League. Nice to see Valdés in there, personally I'd give him the best keeper award as neither Cech nor Van der Sar impressed that much. There are four categories: best goalkeeper, best defender, best midfielder and best attacker. The winners will be announced at the draw for the first round of this season's Champions League on August 27, and the nominees are:

 Best Goalkeeper:

Petr Cech (Chelsea FC)
Víctor Valdés (FC Barcelona)
Edwin Van der Sar (Manchester...

It seems as if the majority of readers agree with me that Leo Messi was our best player in the 2008/2009 season. Messi polled 333 votes giving him 56% of the vote. In second place with 109 votes (18%) was Andres Iniesta, followed by Xavi Hernandez with 57 votes (10%), Thierry Henry 33 votes (6%), Samuel Eto'o 25 votes (4%), Toure Yaya 12 votes (2%), Dani Alves 12 votes (2%) and Gerard Piqué 5 votes (1%). The new poll continues the Eto'o or Villa theme: who do you want to see as our first choice striker next season?

I had a lot of headaches when I started thinking about this. After such a marvellous season it seems a shame to single out one player as being better than the others. If truth be told I would like to give the award to the top three players who have all had exceptionally good seasons. But as I didn't want to cop out on a decision I decided to make a choice anyway and then you can all argue amongst yourselves.

After considering long and hard I have decided that Barça's best player of the 2008/9 season should go to Leo Messi. He may not have been as consistant as his two closest challengers but overall I think Messi was the one who showed up when we most needed it. In the first half of the season especially he was responsible for many late...

I've a lot of catching up to do over the next few days. Coming soon you will have a Player by Player Review of the Season, the Player of the Season award, as well as the final fantasy football table. For today you are getting the Player of the Month for May, and I have to say it was another close one. Given that some of our games this month were somewhat more important than others I've based the results on performances in the games at Real Madrid and Chelsea and our two finals against Athletic Bilbao and Manchester United.

The May Player of the Month goes to Gerard Piqué after scoring the sixth goal in the Bernabeu, driving the team on against Chelsea when we were down to ten men and a superb performance in the...

There are still eight days to go before the Champions League Final with Manchester United but the signs are positive that two of our most important players, Thierry Henry and Andres Iniesta, will be fit in time to play from the beginning. According to a report in today's El Sport both players are proceeding well with their recoveries and the medical services have indicated to Pep Guardiola that they will both be ready in time. This is indeed excellent news, we will just have to work out...

Andres Iniesta is confident that the injury to his quadriceps muscle in his right thigh will not keep him out of the Uefa Champions League Final against Manchester United on May 27 in Rome. Iniesta, who is 25 today, underwent tests this morning that revealed that the tear in his right thigh is small. In February Iniesta suffered a similar injury which kept him out of action for two weeks, while in November he suffered a more serious tear in his right thigh which left him on the sidelines for two months. Saint Andres of Stamford Bridge is vital to our plans to beat United, let's hope that both he and Thierry Henry make it in time.

Football Club Barcelona will have to wait another week to be crowned champions of La Liga. With the fireworks and cava prepared for the celebrations, Joseba Llorente equalized for Villarreal in the 92nd minute to spoil the party which had seemed certain with just 13 minutes to go when Barça were leading 3-1, but then Eric Abidal gave away a penalty and was sent off which gave Villarreal the chance for their comeback. However, the worst news from today is that Andres Iniesta ended the game with a torn muscle and he will have to wait until tomorrow to find out the seriousness of the injury, and for now we will have to pray he is ok for the Champions League final on May...