Aubameyang: 'You can't say no to Barça'

Just days after opening his account for FC Barcelona in the excellent away win at Valencia in La Liga, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang spoke to Catalan sports' papers Sport, Mundo Deportivo and L'Esportiu to analyse his first few weeks in Barcelona. 

The Gabonese striker joined the Club at the end of the winter transfer market on a contract until 2025 and he explained in the interview: "The week before signing I knew that I could sign for Barça, there was contact."

Aubameyang added: "Barça is a great club and I really wanted to come as it's a chance that you have just once in life; soon Barça will be back where they belong." 

"I did everything I could. I went all in. Barça are Barça and you can't say no," said the former Arsenal forward before continuing: "I have scored goals for many years now and I will try to continue that at Barça. I want to score to help the team to victory which is always the most important thing." 

Having only recently arrived in Barcelona and not having played for a while, the Gabon international smiled when asked about settling in. "It has not been hard settling in because I had seen a lot of Barça matches and at Arsenal with Arteta [the Arsenal coach and former Barça player] we played in a similar way to here. I am looking forward to learning and the squad has given me a great welcome so I am very happy here. When I see how the youngsters are playing, I want to do the same," revealed Aubameyang. 

With the second leg of the Europa League play off to come against Napoli, the new Barça signing outlined the importance of the game in Naples: " We want to win the Europa League - we are ready and we want to do well as it is one of the ways into next season's Champions League. In the first leg we played really well but we could have scored a few more. We will have chances over there but we have to be more ruthless." 

Aubameyang also commented on Barça's mixture of youthful talent and experience: "Pedri, Nico, Gavi...they are all really good and seeing them in person is better than on TV. This is a fantastic thing for the Club and its future. I can only say that they need to keep on like this and there will be a lot of fun if they continue with this attitude of wanting to win and give everything." 

Finally, Aubameyang also touched on the quality of another recent arrival at Barça: "Ferran is a lad with a lot of quality. I saw him play at Manchester City many times - it's easy when you have good players like Ferran Torres; you only have to watch him a little bit to know that."