The Fans Football Blog3

Asked about the new rumours linking Valencia left wing attacker and Spanish international Juan Mata (21) with a move to Barcelona (read more here), the player's father and agent Juan Manuel Mata has said in an interview with Catalan radio station COM Ràdio that it's an honour to be linked with Barcelona:

"That a coach like Guardiola, who has won everything, likes the way of playing of Mata and thinks that he has the right profile for Barcelona, is of course an honour.

In any case, it was Valencia that gave him the chance to have already played 80 games in the Liga, to have scored a bunch of goals, to become international, European champion under-19 and best player of that tournament.

No one of Barcelona has talked with me so far but I think that's normal because the clubs should first reach an agreement. The president of Valencia already told me more than one month ago that Barcelona and Madrid have asked for Mata and that he had rejected.

The president is always very clear in his public statements and he was also clear to me: Mata is a very important player for the current project of Valencia. But I guess a situation can always change overnight. I want to stress that football wise, Mata cannot complain at Valencia although you cannot deny that Barcelona has been winning a lot of trophies.

But we sure want to renew his contract because it's still the same as when he arrived from Real Madrid B and they have been promising the whole year that he deserves a better contract, so we're waiting for that. We had a first contact and the proposal wasn't exactly very good. We'll have a new meeting at the end of this week."

Read more:
Barcelona moving again for Mata
Looking forward to the last transfer window month