João Félix and João Cancelo are already Barcelona players. Both arrive on loan for one year without a purchase option. Also Before landing in Barcelona, ??João Félix extended his contract for two more seasons with Simeone’s men. Until 2029. The two footballers agreed to lower the token to dress as a blaugrana, a gesture that the club thanked in their statements.
The two players represented by Jorge Mendes, landed this afternoon in the Catalan capital and went to the sports city to pass the medical examination satisfactorily. “Signing for Barça has always been my dream,” he explained to the club’s official media. The striker was the most expensive signing in the history of Atlético de Madrid who paid Benfica 124 million euros in 2019.
The 23-year-old footballer, who is used to playing as a midfielder, did not convince Simeone with whom he hardly has a relationship anymore. The mattress club loaned him to Chelsea in January, with whom he played 16 games in the Premier League and another four in the Champions League. He scored four goals.
After a turbulent stage at Atlético with Simeone and an unproductive loan spell at Chelsea, João Félix is ??getting on his last big train. “Barcelona has always been my first choice and I would love to join Barça. I dreamed of it since I was a child. If it happens, it will come true,” he said in July via Fabrizio Romano’s Twitter account. “I hope it’s the best year of my life”, added already of blaugrana.
Xavi did not see it clearly. Deco neither. But the board led by Joan Laporta does. This Saturday Félix will train for the first time under the orders of his new coach who will have to find a fit for the Blaugrana ecosystem, used to playing with four midfielders and two forwards or with two open ends but not with a midfielder.
For his part, João Cancelo, a 29-year-old right-back, had been waiting a week in Portugal for the operation to be completed. There has been a change of plans in the initial formula. In the first instance, the right-back was going to arrive on loan with a purchase option of 25 million euros that would become mandatory if sporting variables such as overcoming the group stage of the Champions League were met. Finally, Barcelona has ruled out this agreement because LaLiga would account for the operation in the financial year of this course, affecting the economic fair play. “This season in Barcelona will be a course of enthusiasm and commitment.”
To face the registration of both players, the president Joan Laporta kept an ace up his sleeve. The maximum president together with some members of his board of directors, contributed 12 million to LaLiga. Half in the form of a guarantee and another six in the form of promissory notes, that is to say with checks that promise to be paid by the board of directors. This movement was made to compensate the 40 million that the German fund Libero had to pay in the last two weeks.
Barcelona also had to continue lightening its salary mass to gain economic margin. The first move to be completed was the loan of Clément Lenglet to Aston Villa for one year and without a purchase option. The Birmingham club assumes a small part of his record, which this year is 16 million euros, since the Frenchman must begin to receive the deferred amount in 2020 when, like Piqué, De Jong and Ter Stegen, he negotiated the extension of his contract until 2026. This is the second loan with a return ticket for Lenglet, who last year played for Tottenham.
The next was Ansu Fati. The youth squad player changes Barça’s 10 number for Brighton’s 31 for one year. The assignment was also closed without a purchase option. Hello to all Brighton fans. Let’s go with everything, ”said the footballer on his social networks. He leaves to gain confidence. He has not achieved it with the Blaugrana elastic since he was injured in November 2020 in the meniscus of his knee. At that time he had already been with Jorge Mendes, the head agent of this Barça, for five months.
