Ibrahim Afellay Joins Barcelona

By Parvez Fatteh, Founder of http://sportingummah.com, sports@muslimobserver.com

Barcelona’s Afellay (R) fights for the ball with Almeria’s Miguel Angel Garcia during their Spanish King’s Cup semi-final soccer match at Juegos Mediterraneos stadium in Almeria, February 2, 2011.  REUTERS/Francisco Bonilla

Moroccan-Dutch forward Ibrahim Afellay was sent from Dutch club PSV Eindhoven to join Spanish giants FC Barcelona during the January transfer window. The 24-year-old midfielder was acquired for the bargain price of only 2.5 million pounds. Compare that to the 35 million pounds paid by Liverpool to Newcastle for striker Andy Carroll, and you can see that Barca got a steal. technical director Andoni Zubizarreta has emphasised the potential importance of new signing Ibrahim Afellay, after the Dutch international opened his scoring account with the club during an impressive performance against Almeria.

The attacking midfielder has already paid dividends, scoring the third goal in a 3-0 win over struggling La Liga club Almeria, and contributing solidly throughout the Copa del Rey semi-final second leg, which resulted in an 8-0 aggregate win.

Barcelona technical director Andoni Zubizarreta was full of praise for the new signing. “Afellay offers Barcelona many new options and we will provide him the opportunity to play. He is very dangerous when he breaks into the opponents’ penalty area and generally has a great impact on the game. He will do well if he continues to evolve,” Zubizarreta told Sport.es.

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