Barcelona have signed off on a €155 million loan to ease their financial problems. The loan was announced last week but completed today and will be lent jointly by a host of banks, led by La Caixa and Banco Santander.
New club president Sandro Rosell has presided over the deal after revealing last week the Catalan outfit was unable to honour player wages at the end of June and the sale of defender Dmytro Chygrynskiy was required to prop up the club’s coffers.
Rosell nevertheless claimed the club had €50 million available for transfers, which he said would rise to €89 million following the sales of Chygrynskiy and Yaya Toure.
Striker Thierry Henry also left the club today, the former Arsenal forward signing for the New York Red Bulls on a multi-year contract.
One man who is staying at the club is coach Pep Guardiola, who signed a new contract to remain at there for at least one more season following a meeting with Rosell.
Guardiola verbally agreed the deal with former Barca president Joan Laporta in January but Rosell had hoped to tie the coach down on a long-term agreement.
The 39-year-old has remained true to his word however and put pen to paper on a new deal which will keep him at the Nou Camp until June 30th next year. Barca announced the deal on their official website but neither the coach nor Rosell will hold a press conference to discuss the new agreement.
Former Barca captain Guardiola took over from Frank Rijkaard as coach in the summer of 2008, after leading the club’s reserve side to promotion from Spain’s third tier.
The decision to appoint Guardiola, who lacked top coaching experience and was only 37 at the time, was questioned by many key figures in the game and the early signs were ominous as Barca went down to promoted side Numancia in his first league match.
Guardiola recovered to lead Barca to an unprecedented treble of Primera Division, Copa del Rey and Champions League titles in his first season, before making it six trophies out of six with the capture of the Spanish and European Supercups, and the Fifa World Club Cup.
Guardiola led the Catalan side to the league title in his second season, taking his tally to seven titles out of a possible nine.
Barca’s website described the coach’s new contract as “the most long-awaited piece of news” of the summer, and the club will now concentrate their efforts on strengthening the first team for next season.
Striker David Villa has already signed from Valencia, but the Catalans also hope to bring in their former youth team midfielder Cesc Fabregas from Arsenal.
The Gunners have already turned down a €35 million bid from Barca for their captain but the Catalans are expected to return with an improved offer in the
coming days.