At the Benito Villamarín Alejandro Balde overflowed, shone and assisted Raphinha. “We are witnessing the birth of the best left-back of the next decade,” they predict at the Blaugrana club, which wants to ensure the continuity of the 19-year-old left-back whose contract ends in 2024 before the season ends. He still has a record, number and affiliate salary. “At the end of the season, once we have the fair play, we will close this renewal that interests us so much. Bucket is a rocket. We will continue talking with his agent, Jorge Mendes ”, the Blaugrana president, Joan Laporta, summarized a few days ago in RAC1. The will of the club is to renew it until 2027 with a clause that can exceed the current 500 million euros.
On the other side of the board, Alejandro Balde is still waiting for news. His desire is to continue as a blaugrana. Currently his relationship with the club extends until June 2024. Despite having a record and salary as a subsidiary player, which is why he continues to wear the number 22 number, number 12 is already waiting for him, as his Camp Nou ticket office reminds him . His neighbor is Gavi, another youth squad player who, against Betis, a club in which he began kicking the ball before arriving at La Masia, finally managed to debut with the number 6 after being registered on the last day of the market as a footballer for the first team thanks to a court order that LaLiga complied with. With Balde, Barça hopes that they will not have to resort to such extremes.
But the footballer’s representatives and lawyers do want to make it clear that when the renewal is signed, the club must assume the obligation to give him a first-team record. In the event that said clause is not fulfilled, Balde could be free to leave for free wherever he wanted.
The wording of the aforementioned clause would be similar to that of Gavi. Faced with LaLiga’s refusal to accept his registration, alleging that the club does not have a sustainable economic viability plan, Barcelona took the case to court, alleging that in this last market there was room to register him. The non-registration of it in the winter market would have literally implied “its freedom”, rendering the application of its termination clause ineffective and giving rise to “very serious and irreparable damage” to the interests of the entity.
Given the persistent problems with financial fair play (LaLiga maintains that Barcelona must reduce its salary mass by 220 million euros if it wants to sign and register in the summer), Balde’s agents hope that the negotiations will continue to advance and that an entente will be reached before the end of this season. “In summer it will be more difficult with the current situation and Alejandro will only have one year left on his contract. In January he would be free to negotiate with other clubs ”, they recall. And they insist that “without having searched for them, several offers from large teams have arrived.” In that list the majority of interested clubs are from the Premier League.
Meanwhile, in the sports city they are calm. They see Balde convinced to continue and above all very focused on learning and improving by leaps and bounds. “He has improved a lot. He is a very intelligent player who hunts defensive and offensive tactical concepts quickly and applies them by mastering the times ”, they insist.
Last season Xavi only gave the left back 91 minutes, spread over two games. This course, before the arrival of Marcos Alonso to be the direct competition and the relief of Jordi Alba, Balde overcame. He listened, worked and improved. And the prize has come in the form of minutes and recognition. This course already has 24 games, 18 of them as a starter. His evolution also convinced former coach Luis Enrique who chose him over Marcos Alonso to replace the injured José Luis Gayà in Qatar 2022. “At 19 years old he played in a World Cup. That also has a price, ”says his environment.
