Though it did not produce silverware,

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly known as FC Barcelona and colloquially as Barça (), is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of ...

's 2007–08 season would mark a period of change within the club, having many firsts and lasts. Most importantly, this would be

Ronaldinho Ronaldo de Assis Moreira (born 21 March 1980), commonly known as Ronaldinho Gaúcho () or simply Ronaldinho, is a Brazilian former professional Association football, footballer who played as an attacking midfielder or left winger. Widely reg ...

's last season with the club, being displaced by the coming of

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

legend

Thierry Henry Thierry Daniel Henry (; born 17 August 1977) is a French professional football coach, pundit, sports broadcaster and former player. He is considered one of the greatest players of all time and widely regarded as the greatest player in Premi ...

. This season also marked the breakthrough of young talent

Bojan Krkić Bojan Krkić Pérez (; sr-Cyrl, Бојан Кркић Перез, ; born 28 August 1990), also known as simply Bojan, is a Spanish former professional association football, footballer who played as a forward (association football), forward ...

into the first team, as well as the emergence of

Lionel Messi Lionel Andrés "Leo" Messi (; born 24 June 1987) is an Argentine professional Association football, footballer who plays as a forward (association football), forward for and Captain (association football), captains both Major League Soccer ...

as one of the team's key players. On the other hand, this would be

Lilian Thuram Ruddy Lilian Thuram-Ulien (; born 1 January 1972) is a French author, Philanthropy, philanthropist and former professional association football, footballer who played as a Defender (association football), defender. Widely regarded as one of the g ...

's last season as a professional footballer, as well as

Gianluca Zambrotta Gianluca Zambrotta (; born 19 February 1977) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a full-back or as a wide midfielder, on both the left and right wings. Throughout his career, Zambrotta played for several different Ital ...

's last with the club.

Events

* 25 June:

moves from

to Barcelona for €24 million. * 29 August: Nike will supply Barcelona until the 2017–18 season. * 22 September: The

Camp Nou Camp Nou (), meaning ''New Field'' and often referred to in English as the Nou Camp, is a stadium in Barcelona and the home of La Liga club FC Barcelona since its opening in 1957. It is currently undergoing renovation, and with a planned increa ...

turns 50 years old with a celebration full of music, light, and colour. * 22 September: A large reform for the

was revealed, with plans to make the Camp Nou bigger, with a retractable roof and better facilities. * 20 October:

Bojan Bojan (Serbian Cyrillic and Macedonian: Бојан; Ukrainian, Russian and Bulgarian Cyrillic: Боян, transcribed ''Boyan'') is a Slavic given name, derived from the Slavic noun ''boj'' "battle." The ending ''-an'' is a suffix frequently fo ...

becomes the youngest ever player to score for the club in

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

. * 26 October: Barça opens a community centre for children in

Senegal Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea t ...

. * 20 March: Barcelona are knocked out of the Copa del Rey at the semi-final stage by

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

. * 8 May: The club announces that head coach

Frank Rijkaard Franklin Edmundo Rijkaard (; born 30 September 1962) is a Dutch former footballer and former manager who played as a defensive midfielder. Regarded as one of the greatest midfielders in footballing history, Rijkaard was described by British broa ...

will leave the club when his contracts expires at the end of June, and that

Pep Guardiola Josep "Pep" Guardiola Sala (; born 18 January 1971) is a Catalans, Catalan professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player from Spain who has been the manager of club Manchester City F.C., Ma ...

will replace him.

Players

Squad information

The squad has reasonably changed in the summer transfer window. The biggest addition was

, with a

transfer fee In professional football, a transfer is the action taken whenever a player under contract moves between clubs. It refers to the transferring of a player's registration from one association football club to another. In general, the players can onl ...

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...

24 million. That equals the

paid for

Samuel Eto'o Samuel Eto'o Fils (; born 10 March 1981) is a Cameroonian Association football, football administrator and former Football player, player who is the current president of the Cameroonian Football Federation. He is often regarded as one of the ...

in 2004, but just below the €30 million paid for

in 2003. Other additions were

Eric Abidal Eric Sylvain Abidal (; born 11 September 1979) is a French former professional footballer who played as a left-back or centre-back. He played mainly for Lyon and Barcelona, totalling 18 trophies with both teams, including two Champions Leagues ...

Yaya Touré Gnégnéri Yaya Touré (born 13 May 1983) is an Ivorian professional football coach and former player who played as a midfielder. He is currently an assistant coach for the Saudi Arabia national team. Touré aspired to be a striker during h ...

, and

Gabriel Milito Gabriel Alejandro Milito (born 7 September 1980) is an Argentine football manager and former player who played as a centre-back. He is the current head coach of Liga MX club Guadalajara. Milito began and concluded his professional career at Ind ...

. On the other end, some important players that were often used last season have left the club, such as,

Giovanni van Bronckhorst Giovanni Christiaan "Gio" van Bronckhorst (born 5 February 1975) is a Dutch Association football, football manager and former player who last managed Süper Lig club Beşiktaş J.K., Beşiktaş. Originally a midfielder, he moved to left-back lat ...

and

Ludovic Giuly Ludovic Vincent Giuly (born 10 July 1976) is a French former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Midfielder#Winger, winger. Giuly represented France national football team, France at international level, gaining 17 Cap ...

. Barcelona still used a great number of players developed in its

youth system In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team if they show en ...

, 9 of 23, and have two new additions this season:

Giovani dos Santos Giovani dos Santos Ramírez ( ; born 11 May 1989) is a Mexican former professional Association football, footballer. A versatile Forward (association football), forward, dos Santos played as an Midfielder#Attacking midfielder, attacking midfi ...

and

(17 years old, the youngest player on the squad). Most of the players have contracts beyond this end of season, but

Deco Anderson Luís de Souza (born 27 August 1977), also known as Deco (), is a Brazilian-born Portuguese former professional footballer who primarily played as an attacking or central midfielder. Born and raised in Brazil, he acquired Portuguese ...

, an important player, has his contract ending in 2008. The captain is still

Carles Puyol Carles Puyol Saforcada (, ; born 13 April 1978) is a Spanish former professional Association football, footballer who played List of one-club men in association football, his entire career for FC Barcelona, Barcelona. Considered one of the grea ...

, who is from Barcelona's youth system, plays in the first squad since 1999 and currently is the player with the most appearances (268). Currently, the highest scorer is Ronaldinho, with 80 goals. Also Ronaldinho, from August of this year, has a

European passport Passports in Europe are issued by each state individually, e.g. the Netherlands or United Kingdom. In general, passports issued in Europe either grant the holder the right of freedom of movement within the European Economic Area (EU and EFTA pass ...

. On mid-October,

received Spanish nationality, making him an EU player. The only non-EU player is Yaya Touré. Because Spain ratified the

Cotonou Agreement The Cotonou Agreement (French: ''Accord de Cotonou'') is a treaty between the European Union (EU) and the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States ("ACP countries"). It was signed in June 2000 in Cotonou, Benin's largest city, by 78 ACP c ...

in 2007, however, Touré is now considered an EU player, as his native country of

Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire and officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital city of Yamoussoukro is located in the centre of the country, while its largest List of ci ...

is a signatory to that agreement, and the 2003

Kolpak ruling The ''Kolpak'' ruling is a European Court of Justice ruling handed down on 8 May 2003 in favour of Maroš Kolpak, a Slovak handball player. It declared that citizens of countries which have signed European Union Association Agreements have ...

extended the

Bosman ruling ''Union Royale Belge des Sociétés de Football Association ASBL v Jean-Marc Bosman'' (1995) C-415/93 (known as the Bosman ruling) is a 1995 European Court of Justice decision concerning freedom of movement for workers, freedom of associati ...

to nations with an associate trading relationship with the EU.

Transfers

In

Total spending: €65.5 million

Out

Total income: €11.7 million. Expenditure: €53.8 million.

Squad stats

Víctor Valdés Víctor Valdés Arribas (; born 14 January 1982) is a Spanish association football, football coach and former professional player who played as a goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper. He spent most of his professional career with FC Ba ...

and

have been the only two players that have started all the matches (excepting

Copa Catalunya The Copa Catalunya () is a knockout competition organised by the Catalan Football Federation for football clubs in the Catalonia autonomous community of Spain. History Between 1903 and 1940, it was known as the ''Catalan football championship ...

, when Barcelona didn't use the same players as for the other competitions). Previously,

and

started all the matches until they got injured. Oleguer replaced Zambrotta and

Andrés Iniesta Andrés Iniesta Luján (; born 11 May 1984) is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a midfielder and spent most of his career at La Liga club Barcelona. Often regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, he was known ...

replaced Touré.

and

were the substitute forwards, while Santiago Ezquerro played only in the

, as well as

Eiður Guðjohnsen Eiður Smári Guðjohnsen (transliterated as Eidur Smari Gudjohnsen; born 15 September 1978) is an Icelandic professional football coach and former player who played as a forward. Eiður saw his greatest success in England and Spain with Chels ...

playing once.

started the majority of the matches when

got injured. He scored his first

hat trick A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mechan ...

wearing Barça's jersey, and he's the second goal scorer with four goals.

missed three matches due to an injury.

Disciplinary record

Club

Coaching staff

This season will be the fifth consecutive season for

as Barcelona's manager. Even though Barça did not win any major competition last season, club president

Joan Laporta Joan Laporta i Estruch (; born 29 June 1962) is a Spanish businessman, politician, and current president of FC Barcelona. Laporta is a lawyer (he graduated from the University of Barcelona) with his own firm, Laporta & Arbós, which has a nu ...

confirmed Rijkaard's presence for this season. All staff from last season, except doctor Gil Rodas, are remaining. 2006–07 FC Barcelona season

Kit

, , ,

Other information

Competitions

La Liga

Classification

Results by round

UEFA Champions League

Matches

Competitive

Friendly

References

External links

*
English Speaking FC Barcelona Supporters

ESPNsoccernet: Barcelona Team Page

Footballdatabase.com: FC Barcelona (Spain) profile

UEFA Champions League

Web Oficial de la Liga de Fútbol Profesional
* {{DEFAULTSORT:2007-08 Fc Barcelona Season

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

FC Barcelona seasons 2007 in Catalan sport 2008 in Catalan sport 2007–08 La Liga