| Henry signs for Barca: reports |
| MADRID (AFP) - Barcelona have agreed to sign Arsenal's French international striker Thierry Henry for 24 million euros (32 million dollars), a Barcelona spokesman said Friday, but denied media reports a four-year deal was sealed and delivered. "It's still not been confirmed," the spokesman told AFP, adding discussions had been going on in London between Barca's financial affairs vice-chairman Ferran Soriano and Gunners' boss Arsene Wenger but essentially confirming the move was going ahead as well as the fee. Earlier, the usually well-informed Cadena Ser radio quoted club sources as saying the deal was done, while Barcelona-based sports journal El Mundo Deportivo said Henry would arrive in the Catalan metropolis on Sunday for a Monday medical and presentation next week. Henry's departure will be a major loss to Arsenal as he epitomised the "French Revolution" Wenger brought to the club and won the hearts of supporters by becoming in 2005 the top-firing Gunner of all time, surpassing the 184 strikes of the legendary Ian Wright. Henry was instrumental in English Premiership title wins in 2002 and 2004 as well as a trio of FA Cups and was additionally elected Premiership player of the year on three occasions as well as four times topping the goalscoring charts. Barca, pipped at the post for the league title by Real Madrid, had been chasing the 29-year-old World Cup winner for more than a year and now expect to line him up alongside Cameroon hotshot Samuel Eto'o and Ronaldinho next season in a forward line which also includes Argentine starlet Leo Messi. Henry has spent eight seasons at Arsenal but has grown frustrated at the club's lack of European success. He was a member of the side which lost to Barca in the 2006 Champions League final. Arsenal had been hoping for a transfer fee in the region of 35 million but with Henry turning 30 this summer Barca appeared to have been able to knock them down below that sum. British media earlier this week quoted Eto'o as saying his close friend would soon join him at the Nou Camp. "He is a great mate of mine and we will play all together," Eto'o was quoted as saying. Henry started off his career as a precocious winger with Monaco under Wenger's tutelage in 1994 a year before the latter headed off to Grampus Eight in Japan. After playing a cameo role in France's World Cup win on home soil in 1998 Henry, a product of the hugely productive French training centre at Clairefontaine outside Paris, joined Juventus in 1998 after 28 goals in 129 games for the Monegasques, winning the 1997 French title. Henry played barely half a season and hit just three goals in 16 starts for the 'Zebras' before heading back to the Riviera for a brief spell. Arsenal then came calling with Wenger at the helm in 1999 and after the professorial coach turned his protege into a centre forward Henry blossomed into one of the greatest players in the world, scoring more than a goal every other game in some 250 league games over eight seasons. He also won the 2000 European Championship with France and was European Golden boot winner in 2004 and 2005. Barca, keen to reassert their dominance over Real next season, are also looking at AS Roma's Romanian defender Cristian Chivu with club secretary Txiki Begiristain in Rome with a 13 million euro offer and the added carrot of Brazilian defender and former Arsenal man Sylvinho as a deal makeweight. Catalan media said Begiristain had met Roma's technical director Danielle Prade and unveiled his offer. |
| 2007-06-22 20:40:24 |
| What Tan Xien Means |
|
T is for Timeless A is for Alluring N is for Neglected X is for X-Rated I is for Insane E is for Enchanting N is for Naive |