Cesc Fabregas completes move from Arsenal to Barcelona

Posted by By admin at 15 August, at 11 : 30 AM Print

Cesc Fabregas is officially a Barcelona player after signing a five-year contract with the European champions.

The former Arsenal captain passed two medicals on Monday and will be unveiled by the club at 1300 BST.

Arsenal will receive a guaranteed £30m transfer fee, with a further £5m dependent on the number of games played and trophies won.

Barcelona reported that the buy-out clause on Fabregas’ contract is 200 million euro.

It means the 24-year-old World Cup winner returns to the team he left as a 16-year-old in 2003. He will wear the number four shirt for the new season.

The finalisation of the deal brings to an end one of the most protracted transfer sagas in recent football history.

On Sunday Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said: “We understand Cesc’s desire to move to his home-town club and have now accepted an offer from Barcelona.”

“We have been clear that we didn’t want Cesc to leave and that remains the case.

“We thank Cesc for his contribution at Arsenal and wish him future success.”

News of the deal was confirmed at half-time of the first leg of Barcelona’s Spanish Super Cup match against Real Madrid on Sunday, which ended 2-2.

Commenting on what he described “very tough” negotiations, Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola added that Fabregas had benefited greatly from his time at Arsenal, adding: “Cesc grew up with Barcelona but he became a huge player thanks to Wenger and Arsenal.”

Wenger will face the media ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League qualifier against Udinese.

Fabregas trained with his Arsenal team-mates for the final time on Friday morning and was not part of Wenger’s squad for Saturday’s Premier League opener against Newcastle, which finished 0-0

He had missed the club’s summer tour of Asia as well as other pre-season games, including the Emirates Cup, because of a hamstring injury.

The Spaniard, who has 58 caps for his country, made 303 appearances for the Gunners during his eight-year spell in north London, scoring 57 goals in all competitions.

In October 2003, he became Arsenal’s youngest first-team player when he made his debut against Rotherham United in the Carling Cup aged 16 years and 177 days.

He also became the club’s youngest goalscorer when he netted against Wolves in a 5-1 win that December. Fabregas was part of the Arsenal team that beat Manchester United on penalties to win the 2005 FA Cup, which turned out to be his only major trophy with the Gunners.

He went on to become Arsenal captain in November 2008. Striker Robin van Persie is likely to take over as the new permanent Arsenal skipper, although he will be suspended for the Udinese match after being shown a red card against Barcelona in the Champions League last season.

When quizzed on the futures of Fabregas and Samir Nasri – who BBC Sport understands is close to a move to Manchester City – at a news conference on Friday, Wenger had said he expected “nobody to leave” Arsenal.

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