Official: Barça sign Cáceres

[Pat Murphy]

Barcelona To Clinch Cáceres Deal

Barcelona are set to make Martín Cáceres their third summer signing on Tuesday after increasing their offer for the defender at the weekend and having it accepted by Villarreal.

The Blaugrana are pushing ahead with president Joan Laporta's desire to wrap up all the new arrivals before fans vote in a referendum on whether he will stay on at the helm.

Cáceres is the first of three players that the club want to sign, along with Daniel Alves and Aleksandr Hleb, and will add to the recent additions of Seydou Keita and Gerard Piqué.

Villarreal turned down Barcelona's initial offer of €15m for the player that impressed during his spell on loan at Recreativo last term and were holding out for the €20m in his buy.out clause.

Barça will now pay €17m and the Yellow Submarine have indicated that the remaining three will be linked to his performances and achievements at Camp Nou.

Daniel Fonseca, the player's agent, shares 50 per cent of his rights with Villarreal, a common practice in South America, and will make a tidy sum from the move.

With Gaby Milito out with a knee ligament injury and Lilian Thuram set to leave, the Blaugrana have been keen to bolster their back line ahead of the new campaign.

Lucas Brown, Goal.com

Goal.com - Barcelona - Barcelona To Clinch Cáceres Deal


9 years younger than Puyol looks like he will become his eventual replacement when Puyol retires.

Unfortunately I haven't seen a lot of Cáceres this season as they don't show Recre games on the TV much. I remember him against Barca and he conceded a penalty

[Pat Murphy]

Mundo Deportivo - Hoy fichan a Cáceres

Caceres will apparently be made official today. He'll be the starting CB for the next 6-7 months and then him and Milito will fight for that CB spot after that. It will depend on Caceres' form before then.

Zambrano, Caceres' coach last year said that he was the most talented and promising player he has ever seen.

[lionel]

I'm very very happy about this signing. my favourite out of the 4 seem to have singed(keita, pique, caceres and hleb).

Originally Posted by pat

Unfortunately I haven't seen a lot of Cáceres this season as they don't show Recre games on the TV much. I remember him against Barca and he conceded a penalty

I had seen him in the recre-real and recre-barca matches... he was very remarkable (for me). in the match against barca when he conceded a penalty, before the penalty he had stopped giovanni, henry and eto'o many many times.

Originally Posted by pat

Zambrano, Caceres' coach last year said that he was the most talented and promising player he has ever seen.

in defence, I agree

[Trim]

Villarreal Agree Cáceres To Barcelona Sale - Official

Villarreal have announced that they have agreed a fee with Barcelona for young central defender Martín Cáceres, who will sign his new contract with the Catalunya club imminently...

Villarreal announced via their official website that they have reached a 'principle of agreement' with Barcelona over the young Uruguayan, who is expected to agree personal terms with FCB this evening.

Sport.es reports that the youngster, who spent last season on loan at Recreativo de Huelva, will transfer to Camp Nou for a total fee of €16m.

Of this €10m will swell Villarreal's coffers, while the remaining €6m will be somehow divided between a group of agents, led by Daniel Fonseca, and Defensor Sporting of Montevideo, the 21-year-old's former club.

The player himself, who is jetting in to Barcelona to finalise matters, told Uruguayan media sources, "My agent told me that everything has been agreed with Barcelona.

"I thought I would sign for Real Madrid but Barça have come out suddenly. I'm excited, because its the best team of Spain. I didn't expect that my first season in Europe would be so good."

Goal.com - Barcelona - Villarreal Agree Cáceres To Barcelona Sale - Official

[Pat Murphy]

Cáceres: “I will defend the Barça shirt to my utmost”

Barça’s third new signing for next season has made his first comments to Barça TV and www.fcbarcelona.cat. Martín Cáceres told us. “I’m really keen to do well”.

On his arrival at Barcelona airport, the Uruguay defender said: “I’m very happy. I come from playing for Recreativo and now I’m going to play for Barça. This team has a lot of top quality players and is one of the biggest clubs in Europe”.

The Barça colours

Martín Cáceres emphasised: “I will defend the Barça colours to my utmost”. He also assured us that he will prove just what he can do during the coming season: “I’ll do my bit and give my all to do well”.

Finally he expressed his confidence that Villarreal and FC Barcelona will reach an agreement over the details of his transfer.

Known as ‘el pelado'

Martín Cáceres is popularly known as ‘el pelado' (the Spanish word for very short hair). He told us that he was given the nickname some years ago: “I cut my hair short and since then I’ve had this nickname”.

fcbarcelona.com

Cáceres will complete his medical today.

[Pat Murphy]

Martín Cáceres joins Barça

Martín Cáceres has signed for FC Barcelona for the next four seasons. His rescission clause has been set at 50 million euros.

The Uruguayan was in the Camp Nou offices on Friday morning to sign for the club for the next four seasons. So, Martín Cáceres becomes the third new player of the 2008/09 season. Moments after, the happy player spoke to the media about his expectations with his new team and posed for photographs.

Martín Cáceres arrived in Barcelona on Thursday. The same day, at 16.00, he took a medical on the FC Barcelona facilities. After these initial tests, club doctor Ricard Pruna described Cáceres’ fitness as being “like a child”.

Complete medical

On Friday morning, Martín Cáceres had a further series of medical tests to pass before he could sign his contract, all of which were satisfactory. The player will now be heading straight off to his native Uruguay, where his national side have World Cup qualifying matches on June 14 and 17 against Venezuela and Peru respectively.

fcbarcelona.com

He'll slot straight into the defence for next season like this....

--- Alves? ----- Puyol ------ Cáceres ------ Abidal

Looks good on paper but no Barca defence is good in reality.

[lionel]

Martin played 90 minutes yesterday in the WC qualifier of Uruguay at home vs. Venezuella.
he played LB!! and he was quite good. not his best match tbf, but he was very decent as left back. he spent the whole first half running back and forth from attack to defence and got a bit tired in the second half... I was impressed by his speed and amazing ball control... very good technique and passing. his crosses were not impressive though... but he had some fantastic shots in the first half that almost ended with goals.
BUT, the goal venezuella scored came from the man he was supposed to keep...

[Pat Murphy]

LB is interesting. Sometimes we could play him there and have Milito - Puyol at CB I guess, gives us more options.

I wonder if he was any good attacking wise.

[lionel]

Caceres presentation:







and he already has his own BARCATOON

[Pat Murphy]

He normally has no.4 which is Marquez's number so I guess he'll take no.15 or 21 or something.

I think he might slot straight into CB when the season starts, hopefully making it hard for Milito to get back intop the lineup.