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Barcelona make formal offer for Fabregas

Other News Materials 2 June 2010 17:28 (UTC +04:00)
Barcelona said on Wednesday they have made a formal offer for a return of Spain midfielder Cesc Fabregas from England's Arsenal to the Spanish football champions.
Barcelona make formal offer for Fabregas

Barcelona said on Wednesday they have made a formal offer for a return of Spain midfielder Cesc Fabregas from England's Arsenal to the Spanish football champions, DPA reported.

"The official window for transfer negotiations opened June 1 and although we'd had unofficial conversations with them before yesterday, we've now made a formal written offer, which we presented to Arsenal yesterday afternoon," Barca director general Joan Oliver said on the club website.

"Everybody knows that Cesc wants to sign for Barca and that we also want him to come here, but there is also a third party involved - Arsenal. Any agreement has to be with them."

Fabregas, 23, played in the Barcelona youth teams before leaving for Arsenal in 2003. He has a contract with the Gunners until 2014 and suggested recently that he wanted to go to Barca if he would leave Arsenal.

The midfielder is one of Barca's top summer transfer target and the club is believed to have already bid some 44 million dollars for him. However, Arsenal are said to want a much bigger fee if they release Febregas who is currently with the Spanish World Cup team.

Barca have already signed striker David Villa from Valencia for almost 50 million dollars, and Barca vice-president Rafael Yuste said he was upbeat that Febregas will come as well.

"I'm optimistic that he'll be able to sign for Barca as soon as possible and it's clear that everybody here will give him a warm welcome," said Yuste.

"We'll do nothing that might make it more difficult for him to come here and we won't rush things - but we won't stop either!"

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