Fans in Europe show how much they love FC Barcelona star Eric Abidal.



Éric Abidal has been named in the uefa.com users' Team of the Year 2007. The website revealed the 11 best players over the past 12 months. The event, which started in 2001, has remained the same with the website nominating 60 players and users then vote for their favourite eleven. The vote was cast by uefa.com readers, who were given a choice of several players in each position, and the Barça full-back won his place after 3.5million votes were made by 277,985 users. Abidal was the only Barca player picked by the voters.


UEFA Champions League winners, AC Milan, led the way with three players as Kaká, Alessandro Nesta and Clarence Seedorf were included. Liverpool saw Steven Gerrard named, while Chelsea have John Terry and Didier Drogba included. The other players in the team are Iker Casillas (Real Madrid), Dani Alves (Sevilla), Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United) and Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Inter), while Sir Alex Ferguson was voted in as manager.

Transfer success, Eric Abidal bares his mind.


FC Barcelona's new signing Abidal has left Lyon to continue with his spectacular football at Barca. The French international has been the toast of Barca fans since his very first match. Now, Abidal speaks on a vast array of issues. Read all about this below:


Exclusive Interview With Eric Abidal.

UEFA ensure Abidal and Olympique Lyon remain inseperable !


Not so fast is what Lyon players and oficials seem to be telling Barca's Eric Abidal, as the French entourage storm Barcelona few months after their player Abidal left for the same destination. French star Eric Abidal left Olympique Lyon a few months ago. Now, the Barca defender has to come face-to-face with his old clubmates and officials once again, this time in the far away Spain and in the colours of FC Barcelona. Abidal is uneasy about this, but knows he still has to stand up to it and rise to the occassion:

I don’t like playing my ex-team. That’s only normal. However, I'll approach the game like any other game. Winning the Champions League is important and any player would like to lift it. It is best we focus on the game tomorrow and not worry yet about what might happen in later rounds.

Abidal also sheds more light on Lyon's raving player, Benzema, who along with Juninho, are expected to cause problems for Barca:

Benzema is a great player. He got the chance to show his quality when Fred was out injured, he is a more mature player now.

The Blaugrana strongman is also quick to show solidarity to his coach, Frank Rijkaard, who he's standing by no matter the odds. The Barca defender defends his coach and manager:

They always criticise the manager the most, but Rijkaard is working so that the group can work well, and I think that if anything needs criticism it’s the team as a whole. We are a group, the manager too, but if things go badly, the manager gets the criticism.

New Barcelona signing Abidal speaks out.


Eric Abidal is one man who is happy with the way things have gone so far in Barcelona since his arrival, and the French star defender reveals this in a brief talk, reflecting a confident mind-set and assurance of his ability and strong belief in the FC Barcelona super squad. Praising the quality in FC Barcelona while comparing the atmosphere in France to that in Camp Nou, Abidal picks two differences:

To work with players of this level makes life a lot easier. Also the professionalism of the club means that it takes less time to adapt to being here. I am perplexed at the huge number of journalists around and the number of press conferences we have to do ! Another difference between the two is that during the first two weeks of pre-season training in France you do not see a football. In the end however, everything ends up with the same outcome, which is what matters most.

On the Messi strike against Munich and also on the four strikers at Barca and the number of goals they have scored in total this summer, Abidal says:

Lionel Messi is a player of great quality. Ronaldinho, Eto'o and Henry are great scorers too. We do not have to worry about the absence of plenty goals from them during the pre-season mathces. We have not started playing official games yet and we are only in the preparation stages. Things will change once we get off to the start.

Abidal, habitually racing forward to inspire attacks, is also mindful of not hanging around outside his defence line for too long as he cautions about Barca falling to counter-attacks. One admirer of Eric's game is Coach Frank Rijkaard's son, who came to Camp Nou recently spotting Abidal's shirt number and name as the shirt he wore. To this, Abidal was happy and went further to suggest that perhaps, a single shirt should be made which will contain all the names of the Barca players printed on it. Nice imagination.

After passing his medicals and signing his contract, Former Lyon Star, Abidal officially became an FC Barcelona player.


Éric Abidal has signed a four-year contract with FC Barcelona, worth 15 Million Euros, with a buy-out clause of 90 Million Euros. The French star will stay in Barcelona till 2011. Also in the deal, Abidal's former club, Olympique Lyonnaise will receive an additional 500,000 Euros if Barca win the UEFA Champions League within the next four years. Abidal will be wearing the Number 22 shirt at FC Barcelona next season and will pay from the left full back position. The French star expressed satisfaction and relief on finally signing the Barcelona contract. Eric says:

It has always been my ambition to play for Barça. Now the goal is the same as always, to carry on winning.
I thank everyone who made this transfer of mine possible. I will give my all to Barcelona.

The French International already has friends in Camp Nou even before coming, as Barca defender, Lilian Thuram along with new signing from Arsenal FC, Thierry Henry are Abidal's friends from the French National team. Toure Yaya also speaks French. Thuram provided Abidal a lot of inside information about the Blaugrana before the move from Lyon to FC Barcelona.

In response, FC Barcelona's Sporting Director, Txiki Begiristain said on the signing of Eric Abidal:

We want to achieve some balance. If we are going to have great forwards, we also have to be strong at the back. The left-back position is one that could be improved. Abidal is a player who is incredibly professional, very quick and fits all the criteria. He can go forward and is very strong at the back.

Abidal is a quality defender of high repute and his inclusion in the FC Barcelona team will definitely fortify the defence of the Catalan giants.


Abidal also scores when he surges forward. View a beautiful goal in one of such occassions:

Also watch Abidal's brave performance for France at the penalty shootout against Italy in the 2006 FIFA World Cup Final Match: