Barcelona have not wasted time reinforcing their squad for next season as they made their first big move on the transfer market. David Villa is now officially a Barca player as the Valencia management agreed on a 40 million euro transfer fee. The Spanish international will be officially presented as a Barcelona later on today. Villa will sign a four-year deal with an option for a further year.

This move was about to happen last summer but the Valencia board rejected Barca’s bid as they wanted to fight for the Champions League spots and they achieved this task finishing 3rd in the league this season and directly qualified for Europe’s top competition for 2010-11.

Valencia’s president Manuel Llorente had the following to say on the transfer: “As everyone knows we could have done this deal last year but we thought at that moment it was best to keep our squad together to try and get into the Champions League. We have achieved that aim and finished third in the league, and he has contributed a lot towards this. We think it is good sale and necessary for the economic situation of the club.”