Asked about the rumours linking him with a summer move (read more here), Zenit Saint-Petersburg forward and Russian international Andrei Arshavin (27) has said in an interview with Catalan sports paper Sport that he wants to leave Zenit this summer and that he prefers to join Barcelona:"When we won the Russian league last year, I already said that now is the right moment to leave. I have reached the top here, we won the league and the Uefa cup, so this is the moment to move on. It's certainly not a financial thing cause I doubt that another club will pay me what Zenit can offer me. It's just a football challenge. I want to play in a big league.
I have made my decision and manager Advocaat already knows that I'm leaving. I'm playing for Zenit again because I didn't want to stay away from the training and the matches for several weeks. So I agreed with the coach and the club that, while my transfer is being discussed and finalized, I will play when the team needs me.
I don't think that I'm telling something new now, but my dream club is Barcelona. Everybody knows that playing for Barcelona has always been my dream. I'm a fan of the club since that goal made by Ronald Koeman at Wembley. I was impressed by that goal and by the way the team played. I discovered the Dream Team being a young boy and since then I wanted to play for Barcelona.
Barcelona is a team that can win 7-0 or lose 4-3 because its philosophy is to play attacking football. It has always been like that as long as I can remember and that made me very enthustiastic about the club. I loved that way of playing. Koeman, Laudrup, Stoichkov, Guardiola,... They didn't always win, but everybody was talking about Barça and it was a pleasure to watch them.
I've talked about Barcelona with (former Barcelona player and current Russian national team assistant coach) Igor Korneev and he explained me a lot of things about the club and the city and he always tells me that it's the best place where I could go to, that there's just no comparison possible with any other club.
I'm aware that my name is linked with Barcelona these days, but I don't know if they still want me now that they have bought Hleb. We're of course different players but does Barcelona still have enough money to buy me? I hope so. I'm waiting for a call, I'm waiting for a transfer. But at this moment Zenit is asking too much. All I know is that Barcelona has offered 15 million euro° and that Zenit wants 30 million euro°, which is a lot of money.
I've seen the Camp Nou so many times on the television. It has a magnificent pitch and a great atmosphere. I'm not afraid of the pressure, I'm playing eight years for Zenit now and here you also have that pressure. The Barcelona fans are demanding but that's because of the greatness of the club. They are used to play in their own way and to win trophies doing so. My biggest wish is to be part of this club."
Read more:
Arshavin confirms that he is a Barcelona fan
Arshavin negotiations on a dead point
Zenit lowers Arshavin asking price
0 Response to "Arshavin waiting for a call from Barcelona"