Both Nikola Mirotic and Juan Carlos Navarro confirmed the goodbye of the Montenegrin after Barça won the Endesa League final. All that remained was for the club’s president, Joan Laporta, to speak, who minutes after the final triumph at the WiZink Center against Real Madrid ratified the end of the stage for the Barça star.
“Mirotic is a fantastic uncle and a great player, I won’t find out. He is giving us a lot of success. He is also an extraordinary person, but we are in the situation we are in,” the president lamented on Catalunya Ràdio, referring to the delicate economic situation of the club, which intends to adjust the budget of all sections to lower the salary mass.
Laporta recalled that they have “presented a feasibility plan and in order to register players, this plan must be complied with.” “LaLiga demands a certain, not exaggerated, reduction in the sections,” he added about the demands of the Spanish soccer association, which also monitors the spending of other sports sections of non-soccer clubs.
The Blaugrana president did not want to go into the nuances of Mirotic’s goodbye, which transpired a day before the start of the Endesa League final against the whites, when TV3 advanced that Barça was going to terminate the Balkan’s contract, still two years old . The player himself confirmed it hours later in an interview for Mundo Deportivo, where he stated that the club had not offered him a salary reduction, the highest in the squad and in European basketball.
“It is a decision that Navarro will explain how it went. Navarro already said that he would explain it once the League final is over,” Laporta referred to the manager of the basketball section, who after winning the final contradicted Mirotic’s version : “We offered him several times to lower his salary and we did not agree. His statements were very harsh and false.”
