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BARCELONA

Barcelona do not specify price of departing Javier Mascherano

The Argentine will go to China with the specifics of the deal not published and has been told he has a career as a coach at Barcelona when he retires from playing football.

BarcelonaUpdate:
Barcelona FC president Josep Maria Bartomeu (L) applauds next to Barcelona's Argentinian defender Javier Mascherano during a farewell ceremony organised by the football club in Barcelona ahead of his transfer to China on January 24, 2018.
 Mascherano
LLUIS GENEAFP

Josep Maria Bartomeu, the president of Barcelona, said goodbye to Javier Mascherano after seven and a half years wearing the jersey without specifying the amount of the transfer to Hebei China Fortune. The blaugranas released a statement that was just two lines in which they said that the Argentine would join the Chinese side on the 26th of January.

There were no questions asked at the farewell ceremony but did made a declaration in which he said that "it is a very special day, just look at the room, full of friends, with your teammates. It is a day where many feelings come together. On one hand, there is happines because you will start a new challenge, but also sadness to lose a person and a player like you. It is difficult to know when you have to go. He has taken the difficult decision like the one he made to come in August 2010 when, as vice-president, I went to Liverpool to try and sign him and he did everything on his part and the bet turned out very well because he has won 18 titles."

The president of the club told the player that "the day that you finish playing, you will return here because there is a life as a coach waiting for you in this house with many challenges to finish."