Alba cannot wait for his Barca bow after shining for Spain at Euro 2012

“I really want to play with Barcelona as soon as possible, especially after seeing what I could do with my future teammates during the Euros,” Alba told Goal.com.

“It is the best team in the world that has a very good football philosophy. Now I know many players [at Barcelona]. We understood each other and we will understand each other even better,” Alba said.

“I don’t think of myself as the surprise of the tournament, the coach has given me all the confidence in the world, both him and my teammates in fact,” Alba said. “The consequence was a good tournament, both individually and collectively and this is the result, we are champions, and deservedly so.”

Iniesta named Euro 2012 Player of the Tournament

UEFA has announced that Spain midfielder Andres Iniesta has been named the best player of Euro 2012.

The 28-year-old started in each of Spain’s six matches at the Euros and played a leading role in La Roja’s campaign in Poland and Ukraine – which culminated with a 4-0 thrashing of Italy in the final.

Iniesta, who was chosen by the 11-man technical team of UEFA, grabbed one assist in the 551 minutes he was on the pitch at the Euros.

He is also part of UEFA’s 23-man Team of the Tournament, which contains 10 players from Spain and four from Italy.

The Camp Nou, the most social stadium in the world

FC Barcelona’s stadium is named among the top 25 social landmarks in the world according to Facebook. Facebook’s study reaffirms FC Barcelona’s leadership in new technologies and especially on social networks.

The Camp Nou is, according to a recent Facebook study, one of the 25 most social landmarks on the planet. Barça’s stadium is the only football venue that features among the world’s top social landmarks. The study’s findings are based on anonymous aggregated check-in data from nearly one billion actions from Facebook users. Facebook collected data for the study from August of 2010 through May of this year.
Among the world’s top 25 landmarks there are 7 athletic venues, 6 parks, 2 theme parks, 2 concert venues and 2 commercial centers. The athletic venues, besides the Camp Nou, are Chicago Cub’s Wrigley Field and the San Francisco Giants’ AT&T Park; Staples Center in Los Angeles, home of the Los Angeles Lakers; Rogers Center in Toronto; Tokyo Dome (baseball) and Eden Park in New Zealand.

Falcao unaware of Barcelona interest

Spanish sources claimed on Wednesday that the Catalan club was closely monitoring the situation of the Colombian star, who has been strongly linked with a new challenge after an impressive season at the Vicente Calderon.

“The truth is that I do not give any importance to what is being said,” he told reporters. “I do not know about those reports and I have not seen, heard or read anything.

Spain 4-0 Italy! All goals and highlights

Spain 4-0 Italy! All goals and highlights

Marcelo: Messi the world´s best

Brazil left-back Marcelo has heaped praise on Lionel Messi, saying the Argentine is the best player in the world.
Brazil will tackle Argentina on Saturday and will be looking to bounce back from Sunday’s 2-0 defeat against Mexico, which ended a run of eight consecutive victories.
Despite meeting Messi several times throughout the season at club level, Marcelo says there is always a special feeling to playing against the Barcelona star – whom he rated higher than his Real Madrid team-mate Cristiano Ronaldo.
“Right now, Messi is the best player in the world and it is a pleasure to play against him,” Marcelo told Globoesporte.
“We will see what happens, if we can mark him. Argentina are more attacking [than Mexico], so we will have space to play.
“But we need to be careful, because they can score goals easily. You cannot talk about one or two players only, but about their entire team.

“But we also have several good players and we will try to secure a good result.”

Jonathan dos Santos: “With Xavi and Iniesta football is much easier”

Mexican midfielder reflects on his season with Barça B and how he’s felt playing with the first team. Jonathan dos Santos also spoke of playing in midfield after featuring further forward in previous seasons.

B team youngster Jonathan dos Santos reflected on the team’s season, in which under Eusebio Sacristán they finished eighth, and also on his own campaign, which has also included five games with the first team. In the Spanish Cup, he figured in both games against Hospitalet and in the Champions League group game against Milan in Italy which ended 2-3 for Barça as well as starting in the 2-1 win over Real Sociedad in the league and playing in the game against Malaga. Dos Santos was also part of the squad that travelled to the World Club Cup in Japan.

How did you end the season?
“The team did a great job and we’ll take the memory of that last game and a very good season as a whole”.

Does it all seem so much easier when you play alongside the first team players?
“Yes, of course. Since we all know the philosophy that the first team have and we try and apply that in the reserve and youth teams, so that makes things easier. When you are playing with big stars like Xavi or Iniesta, football is an easy game”.

Now you start your holidays and then, in principal, you’ll be joining the first team for pre-season training?
“In principal, yes – but right now I just want to focus on my holidays –whatever comes after that is something I’ll hope to make the most of”.