<http://www.fcbarcelona.com/football/first-team/detail/article/club-reach-deal-in-principal-to-sell-david-villa-to-atletico-madrid>

For a 5.000.000 Euro fee, Barcelona will retain 50% of Villa's rights. There has yet to be a personal agreement between Villa and Atletico, but the clubs have done their business. :)

ALL things considered, Barcelona's financial intelligence seems... nonexistent.
July '10 = Buys David Villa (Spain's all time Goalscorer and one of the best strikers in the world) from Valencia for €40m
July '10-July '13 = Played out of position and following 2 unfortunate COLLISION injuries, price decreases drastically.
Jan '13 = Turn down offer of ~£11m for Villa
July '13 = Accept offer of £4.4m

o.0 WTF?

Oh yea, and I have to share Lodatz' skepticism regarding the dramatic difference of valuation for Ateltico vs the English clubs. If anything, you'd think they'd be more interested in selling abroad so as not to aid their rival Liga clubs...

Either Barca are just assholes or something ain't right.

Oh. Good. Lord.

I just read an article claiming that Tottenham's bid was only 4m Euros. F my life.

<http://sportwitness.ning.com/forum/topics/tottenham-offered-as-little-as-3m-for-barcelona-s-david-villa>

If that's true, suddenly it all makes sense. With no interest from Arsenal, and only a tight-arse, ultra-cheap Levy offer of peanuts, no wonder they sold him to Atleti for only 5.5m.

F'ing Levy. I bet he thought he could recoup the wages costs by undercutting the transfer fee. Idiot.

@lodatz: that's almost too ludicrous to fathom... even for Levy. Get a trustworthy source and myabe I'd think it's possible.

Villa was never the same after that leg break. Shame I rated him as one of the best, when he was in form.

@Footaholic

Regarding what you posted on how Villa was used by Barcelona.... it's always like that for them. Since 2009, not a SINGLE transfer has worked out for them. They have either misused the player, or haven't used them at all. The only ones that worked well have been Pique (until he dropped his form), and Alba, both of whom are La Masia graduates. No Ibra, no Chgrynskiy, no Villa, no Alexis, no Song, no whatever. Honestly, these guys should use their money more wisely. If Neymar doesn't work out either, they'll end up being a laughing stock during the transfer windows (if they aren't already).

Wow Barca sucks at transfers.

Dafuq I'm seeing? Are they actually serious? He reintegraed well after his injury, why kick him out? Maybe there is some rivality between Neymar and Villa?

I guess he wanted to stay in Spain... or Barca didn't want to put him at a big club o.0

@Cesc4Official "Always be a very special companion and a great friend. Good luck in your new stage"

OPTA STATS: " Barcelona won just 70% of games without David Villa playing last season, their worst record without a single player in La Liga. #Missed"

David villa's wage for his last year contract is 11Meuros, this was added to his contract to encourage the player to sign in 2010. Rossell doesn' t want to pay that much for a player that is not in tito's plans for the future. It's a question of money, so sad.

Damn the new Atletico Madrid kit looks awesome.

^agreed. Especially that Villa one.

Perhaps Barcelona also wanted to free up the #7 jersey for Neymar...

^^ I hope not. A little piece of me would die inside. :p

We all know Neymar is all about image it wouldn't surprise me if he demanded #7 or 11. But the departure made since, Neymar came in to be a starter on the LW leaving Villa further down the pecking order. He needs every minute of gametime possible. I would of loved seeing Villa at sprus or arsenal.