17.01.2011 18:36

Perpignan players visit Nou Camp

Miquel Pellicer

The USA Perpignan team exchanged photos, good wishes and shirts with the Barça players this morning and they were all clearly impressed later on in the morning when they visited the Nou Camp installations.

There’s a great mix of nationalities in the Perpignan team and the expressions of admiration for the Club and the team came in a variety of languages, but all the players were well impressed with the facilities and the stadium.

"We’re very happy to be in Barcelona, it’s very important for our club”, according to Perpignan captain Nicolas Mas, on his arrival at the Stadium, where the players mingled with visitors for the Tour del Camp Nou Experience, who were themselves surprised at the size of the players in their midst.

Fans of the team

Lock Olivier Olibeau follows Barça closely and reckons it’s “fantastic” to watch the team at the Nou Camp “they make it look so easy”, something his Argentinean front row colleague Rimas Álvarez-Kairelis agreed with, though he naturally enough had words of praise for his compatriot Leo Messi: “I love everything he does with Xavi and Iniesta . At Perpignan, like at Barça, we are all equal and the most important thing is not the individual, but rather the team as a whole”.

Twinning agreement

USAP and Barcelona made history with their twinning agreement and the best way to celebrate was to bring the two squads together. This morning at the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper the players posed together for photos, whilst Éric Abidal broke the ice with his countrymen and Carles Puyol, Xavi and Valdés posed with Perry Freshwater and Henry Tuilagi, as Michel Joffrey and Jérome Porical clicked away with their mobiles.