Today's announcement that Rafa Márquez has agreed with the club to rescind his contract, making him eligible for a move to the New York Red Bulls, should come as no surprise to anyone. Márquez played for 7 years at FCB, amassing 242 appearances and 13 goals in all competitions. His first goal for us was in the 2-1 home win over Real Betis on November 9, 2003 while his last goal was this stunner of a freekick in the 4-0 home win over Racing Santander on February 20 of this year.

I've already written about him a bit here, so instead of focusing too much on him (though he does deserve a fair number of tributes), I'll focus primarily in this article on the club and squad at large.

For those of us who are obsessed with the sport and Barcelona in particular, the offseason is generally a series of barren months. The World Cup this year alleviated much of that pain and left us with less than a month of transfer rumors--a blessed respite from the typical Silly Season nonsense, really. There have still be plenty of Cesc stories to go around, of course, but at least we're only having to deal with this for a few weeks instead of the entire summer.

So it comes as good news for me and bad news for my daily productivity that Barça has just flown out to play their first preseason match. This one will take place tomorrow, Thursday, July 29 at 7pm local time against Vålerenga Fotball at Ullevaal Stadion in Oslo, Norway.

The Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper, named for Barça's founder, sits in Sant Joan Despi, a small city of about 32,000 on the western outskirts of Barcelona. It is here that most of Barça's training takes place and where this week several of the players have returned after their vacations. The first team members currently working out with Guardiola are Jose Manuel Pinto, Maxwell, Gabi Milito, Adriano, Víctor Sánchez, Seydou Keita, Alexander Hleb, Bojan Krkic, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and Jeffren.

What's more notable at the moment is the inclusion of 14 Barça B players (their team having been renamed once again from Barcelona Atletic this summer). Those players are goalies Oier Olazábal, Rubén Miño, and Jordi Masip; defenders Albert Dalmau, Sergi Gómez, Armando Lozano, and Marc Muniesa; midfielders Ilie Sánchez, Jonathan dos Santos, Martí Riverola, Tello, and Sergi Roberto; and forwards Cuenca, Benja, Jonathan Soriano, Edu Oriol, and Nolito. Defender Andreu Fontàs and forward Víctor Vázquez are both currently injured, but are also training on the margins of the group.

Hello and welcome to the new Barcelona Correspondents page here at Soccernet. The Powers That Be at the Worldwide Leader have been kind enough to allow my humble voice to be projected here for the foreseeable future. I'll obviously be talking about all things FC Barcelona with a smattering of league-wide thoughts.

I've been blogging about Barcelona for more than 3 years now and am currently a writer over at Barcelona Football Blog where I cover upcoming matches and occasionally dabble in editorial pieces. Here at ESPN I'll be covering some of the more mundane things, like results, injuries, transfers, etc. Did I say mundane? I meant the reason I wake up in the morning.

Soccernet's Correspondents pages have provided opinionated football fans with the chance to publish articles to a massive global audience since the year 2000 and although that tradition continues unabated our Soccernet FC section continues to evolve.

During the 2010/11 season we are expanding our exisiting fan-driven coverage of the Premier League to include some of Europe's biggest clubs and we are looking to recruit enthusiastic new talent to help fill all our pages with fresh ideas.

Soccernet is always interested in hearing from energetic writers and we are looking for motivated people to boost the ranks of our team of Correspondents.

If you have an obsession for your club and want to share your passion and knowledge with million's of readers on your very own page on Soccernet then apply to be a Correspondent on the world's site for the world game.

Available now: (please read full post before applying)

• Click here to apply for Blackpool

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As part of Soccernet FC you will have your work published online on one of the world's leading football websites and gain experience in the field of football journalism - with a written reference available on request.

You must be able to write in English, to a good level, and convey your ideas and arguments in a cohesive way to fans from all over the globe.

So, if you want to volunteer to represent your club, or just make a name for yourself, click on the relevent link above and tell us what makes you a prime candidate for Soccernet FC - include your writing experience and methods used to gather information - and send us a 250-word (maximum, please) sample of your writing. It could be a match report, or, if your team aren't playing, a news story or opinion piece based on the latest news or your fantasy scoop.

As a Correspondent you will be required to tell Soccernet's readers what you made of each result, plus club rumours as well as keeping us up to date with team news, speculation and looking ahead to forthcoming fixtures.

These positions are unpaid, but the Correspondents pages provide all you zealots with the opportunity to write about your club's journey through the season. Our readers can follow your rollercoaster ride of emotions through post-match euphoria and dejection, then debate all the bias that comes with football.