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...

Before talking about the Copa del Rey a quick mention of the awards some of our players collected this week. First Victor Valdés picked up his Zamora trophy from Marca for being the goalkeeper who conceded fewest goals in the 2008/09 season. Valdés only conceded 31 goals in the 35 games he played, this is the second time he has one the Zamora, the first time being in the 2004/05 season. Valdés may have his critics but there are not that many goalkeepers who can boast an average of under one goal conceded per game. Valdés has a career record of 233 league appearances with only 204 goals conceded (0.8755 goals a game); just to compare, the "great" Iker...

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...

Ok, I just got back from my trip to London and I'm a bit too exhausted to write much right now. Of course it is crunch time in the World Cup qualifiers and Leo Messi and Argentina have to get a result in Uruguay tomorrow night if they are going to be in South Africa next summer. A win will mean qualification while a draw should also be enough unless Ecuador thrash Chile, but given the recent form of Argentina with some pretty strange decisions from Maradona, nothing can be taken for granted. I've not had time to check on all the groups but it seems that most of our other international players will make it to the finals except for Seydou Keita and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. 

In other news Xavi is doubtful for Saturday's game at...

Just a quick post to let you know I'll be away over the weekend. As there is no game this week I'm popping over to London to catch up with family and friends. You can see how my life is ruled by football as I now choose my weekend breaks in accordance with the football calendar. I may find time to keep up with the news and to make a post or two but no promises. I'll be back in sunny Barcelona next Tuesday.

Anyway, there is never much to write about in these weeks, the newspapers have to scrape up any old story to print, this week we have Cesc Fabregas back in the news with a story saying he will be joining Barça next summer. Well, you never know, eventually Cesc may come back to us, but my rule is never to believe...

As there were only four official games in August, I decided to combine August and September for the first Player Of The Month award of the season. Results are based on the Liga and Champions League games played so far plus the three supercup games we played in August.

Not too many surprises that the first winner of the season is Leo Messi. He has only played in eight of the ten games but has started in excellent form scoring eight goals including two in the games against Atletico Madrid, Racing Santander and also two in the Supercup game with Athletic Bilbao at Camp Nou. In second place is Gerard Piqué who continues to...

Excellent news today as Leo Messi has signed a new contract that will see him staying at Barça until 2016, Messi's previous contract was until 2014. Besides a pay increase, of which no details have been released, Messi's release clause has gone up from €150 million to €250 million. Hopefully this will dissuade the likes of Manchester City from thinking they can steal our star player.

It really doesn't bear thinking about, but with just three qualifying games remaining there is a real danger that Leo Messi and Argentina will not qualify for next summer's World Cup finals in South America. Argentina are still holding on to fourth place in the South American qualifying group and if they can hold on then they will gain direct qualification and we will all be able to enjoy Messi's skills next June. However, if they slip down to fifth place in the group they will face a tough play-off game against the fourth team in the CONCACEF group (could be any of Mexico, USA, Costa Rica and Honduras), while a drop to sixth place would mean Argentina would not qualify for the first time since 1970.

You may feel that in the end Argentina are destined...

Coinciding with the draw for the Champions League was the announcement of the Uefa awards for the best individual players of last season's Champions League. As expected the award for the best player went to Leo Messi. Leo also picked up the award for best forward while Xavi Hernandez beat Andres Iniesta to the award of best midfielder. Best defender went to Chelsea's John Terry while Man United's Edwin Van der Sar was awarded best goalkeeper. Personally I would have given these awards to Gerard Piqué and Victor Valdés