FC Barcelona complete Christanval signing

FC Barcelona have signed defender Philippe Christanval from AS Monaco for £7.7 million.

"I'm delighted to get the chance to play for Barcelona because it's the best club in the world. "This is the most important step in my career," said Christanval after completing medical checks and signing a five year contract with Barca.

Carlos Rexach has been confirmed as Barcelona coach for one more year after taking over in April from Llorenc Serra Ferrer and is now laying down the ambitious plans of some Barcelona executives.

Six top international stars were listed three weeks ago as having pre contracts with Barca.

FC Barcelona general manager Anton Parera named Fiorentina's star goalkeeper Francesco Toldo last month as having a pre contract agreement to move to the Camp Nou.

Toldo was named with five other players but Parera has run into trouble for his willingness to discuss Barcelona's transfer moves.

The Barcelona board want to move Parera away from transfer work after he named Toldo, Philippe Christanval, Juan Riquelme, Javier Saviola, Geovanni and Fabio Rochemback. The Catalan club fears that these players are too expensive unless they start to sell off top stars like Patrick Kluivert and that Barcelona will look bad if they cannot now seal the moves of these players after Parera's boasting.

So far only Christanval and Geovanni have actually completed moves to Barca with Inter now favourites to sign England defender Sol Campbell. Barca are also denying that Perera's deal to bring Geovanni to the club may collapse due to financial problems.

The new transfer manager is to be Perez Farguell from next month after Parera clashed with Barca vice president Joan Castells over his boasting.

The Barca board failed to back the financing of Perera's deal for Francesco Toldo earlier this week although the Fiorentina star is trying to revive the deal.