Abidal is recovering from the intestinal problem that stopped the new signing from playing the Yokohama Marinos match, after the French star had to leave the stadium which he chose to remain on the bench instead of playing, and could not continue to stay on due to stomach and intestinal related pains. The French star retired to the hotel and stayed in his room where he took rest and was monitored accordingly. Abidal is expected to be fit and ready to take on the next opponents of FC Barcelona, which is Mission Hills Invitation XI of Hong kong on Friday, August 10th. Kick of time is 14:00 CET ( GMT +1 ).

Catalan television channel TV3 reported last night reported that French international left back Eric Abidal already is a Barca player and that the Blaugrana are now approaching Dani Alves from Sevilla. TV3 reported in its programe Telenoticies Vespre last night:

All efforts of the technical secretary are focused on two names. First Eric Abidal, who according to several sources can already be considered as a player of FC Barcelona and the other name is Dani Alves. the negotiations with Dani Alves are not concluded or near to conclusion, due to the fact that Barca´s offer is not even near of Sevilla´s minimum demands.

Eric Abidal was born on 11th of July 1979 in Lyon and started his footballing career at Olympique Lyon. In the season 1999-2000 abidal started to play for Olympique´s reserve team. In 2000-01 and 2001-02 he played for AS Monaco and Lille signed him in 2002-03. He plaed for Lille 62 matches in 2 years and made himself indispensible in this time. He rejoined Olympique Lyon in 2004-05 and won 3 Ligue 1 titles in a row and the French Super Cup in 2005. He made his international debut for France in 2004 and was a regular during the World Cup 2006 in germany, when France lost to Italy in the final.

FC Barcelona winger Ludovic Giuly is aware of the possibility that he could be the bait in a Swap Deal between FC Barcelona and Olympique Lyon for French international Eric Abidal. Giuly acknowledged the swap rumours and knows he could be on his way out of Barca, even he would like to finish his contract with the Blaugrana in 2009:

I am aware of that possible swap. I would like to finish my contract with Barca until 2009. But in football you can never say never.

Olympic Lyon´s full back Eric Abidal has a clear desire to leave Olympique Lyon at the end of the season. abidal rejected a contract extension on better terms to 20012 and informed Lyon´s president and coach his desire to leave by the end of the current campaign.


So far, he has not received any concrete proposal, but he revealed that some of Europe´s finest addresses are interested in his services:

I have not received proposals yet. It is true there is interest from several clubs but it is too early to receive concrete contract offers because I still have to more years on my contract. I like Spain, for the culture and Football, but I am open to everything. Anything else that has been said so far is pure speculation. I know that Barca is interested in me, as well as Real Madrid, Arsenal, Milan and Internazionale, although I do not know if I am going to any of these 5 clubs in the future.

Rumours and reports suggest that a move of Olympique Lyon star Eric Abidal is iminent. Also the player´s Italian agent Oscar Damiani admitted that Abidal would be keen to move to giant FC Barcelona.


The French international had been linked with several clubs, but Barcelona probably being the future destination. The 26-year-old Lyon defender is under contract until 2009 but has a buy-out clause of € 15 Mill.


Abidal's representative Oscar Damiani revealed: has admitted interest is mounting in his charge.

Abidal loves Spain and Barca is a great club. He would love it there. We will have more talks, firstly with Lyon in 15 or 20 days, and then later with other interested clubs.