New Faces of Barcelona 2014: Luis Suárez

#9 Luis Alberto Suárez Díaz, Forward (Uruguay)

On July 11, 2014, Barcelona completed a deal with Premier side club, Liverpool, for the rights to Uruguay striker Luis Suarez. With the deal being around 80 million euros, Barcelona hope to provide Lionel Messi and Neymar with another threat in a side that found it difficult to put goals in the net during the crucial parts of last season. The Barcelona board decided to overlook the recent events at the World Cup, involving the “Biting Incident”, and sign the recently four-month-banned striker anyway. Suarez signing with Barcelona marks the second year in a row where the Premier League’s top scorer transferred to a Spanish side, whereas last year it was Gareth Bale moving from Tottenham to Real Madrid.

New Faces of Barcelona 2014: Ivan Rakitić

Ivan Rakitic and Leo Messi squaring off last season at the Camp Nou.

The biggest name for Barcelona to snag (so far) in 2014 is Croatian midfielder, Ivan Rakitic. He is a familiar face to Barcelona, as he played at Sevilla from 2011 till this previous club season. He was a club captain in 2013/14 and led Sevilla to a UEFA Europa League triumph. Prior to coming to La Liga, he played four seasons with Schalke 04 in the Bundesliga in Germany from 2007 until 2011. His professsional career started with FC Basel of the Swiss Super League in 2005, where he played through 2007 with the 17-time Swiss champions.