Barcelona are heading for another transformative summer but the club will have to sell before re-shaping a squad that has badly underwhelmed so far this season.
Last year’s La Liga champions trail current leaders Real Madrid by eight points with 25 games played — and with Xavi to step down at the end of the season, they are already blending thinking on the future with salvaging what is left from this campaign.
Wednesday’s Champions League last-16 first leg at Napoli is now crucial not only to Barca’s chances of winning silverware but also to easing their money worries. Because, as it stands, they will have to raise significant revenues to bring themselves in line with La Liga’s financial rules before 2024-25.
In September, La Liga cut Barca’s permitted salary limit from €648million (£553m; $697m at current rates) the previous year to a new figure of €270m.
Barcelona’s real squad cost for 2023-24 — the total of salaries and transfer amortisations — is officially budgeted at €492million. As they have exceeded their level, La Liga rules say they must make cuts before signing any more players.
Barca president Joan Laporta recently spoke confidently of the club’s ability to do that, without referring specifically to player sales, but all the evidence points towards that happening.
And Barca sources — who, like all those cited here, preferred to speak anonymously to protect their positions — have suggested that the club would essentially be open to good offers on any of its players bar a very select few.
So who might be on the way out? We are still a way from the summer market truly heating up, but here’s a look at the most likely scenarios right now.
Frenkie de Jong
The Dutch midfielder and Barcelona are moving towards a situation that feels similar to that of summer 2022 — the infamous window when the club was openly trying to sell him after receiving a lucrative offer from Manchester United. Despite coming under some pressure to leave, De Jong stayed true to his will and ended up staying. But now, his future looks uncertain again.
Barcelona sources say they have offered De Jong a contract extension — a multi-year deal that does not include a salary reduction — and do not want him to leave. De Jong’s present deal runs until the summer of 2026.
De Jong signing a new deal — even with unchanged personal terms — would help Barca bring themselves in line with La Liga spending rules because his overall cost to the club could be spread over a longer period. As was revealed by the Catalan radio station RAC1 last week, Barcelona still have €30million to amortise out of the €85m transfer fee they paid Ajax for De Jong back in 2019.
Adding up the money owed to Ajax, plus the salary remaining on his contract and the wages he is still owed, De Jong’s cost in Barcelona’s budget over the next two years comes to about €76million. If there’s a multi-year extension signed, this can be spread out.
De Jong arrived at Barca in 2019 (David S.Bustamante/Soccrates/Getty Images)
De Jong’s camp has not formally replied to Barca. That has left the club feeling slightly nervous as, according to sources familiar with the offer, they made their position very clear: if De Jong does not want to accept the extension, Barca would prefer to seek a sale.
However, De Jong, 26, could simply decline to entertain either of those scenarios — as he’s perfectly entitled to do. He is really happy with life at Barcelona, he’s recently become a dad and is not looking for any major changes in his career at the moment. At the same time, extending his contract without a clear feeling of what’s coming next in Barcelona’s long-term project would also be a risky leap of faith for a footballer who will be 29 when his current deal comes to an end.
There is also (you might not be surprised to hear) another complicating financial factor here: De Jong’s wages.
Alongside his regular salary, Barcelona are paying De Jong money he agreed to defer during the Covid-19 pandemic. The agreement, signed under former president Josep Maria Bartomeu, helped to ease financial struggles during the final years of his tenure but was inherited by Laporta’s board.
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Barca will be hard-pressed to find a club willing to pay the lucrative fee they are looking for and capable of improving or matching the player’s personal terms.
Ronald Araujo
Uruguayan defender Araujo has one of the highest market values in Barcelona’s squad.
Publicly, the club has transmitted the idea that the 24-year-old, who has been at the club since 2018, is part of an “untouchable” group in the squad, a figure fundamental to their long-term vision. The same is said of Gavi, Pedri and Lamine Yamal.
However, there are senior club sources who admit that, of the names just mentioned, Araujo would be the most tempting option to eventually sell if a significant offer arrives.
There are not many players in this current Barca team who, after this season, could attract offers of over €65million — but Araujo is one. Bayern Munich were ready to pay €75m for him in January. Barcelona were not entertaining any offers back then, as they felt it was not the right time. The player’s camp also denied having had any intention to leave, even less an agreement over personal terms being reached with Bayern.
Last season, Araujo signed a contract extension up to the summer of 2026. It came with a pay rise, but club sources describe it as not the same level as De Jong’s. In other words, he could potentially receive better offers from elsewhere.
Araujo was voted to the position of vice-captain last summer (Alex Caparros/Getty Images)
As with De Jong though, Araujo is another player who is fully satisfied with life in Barcelona and this year he and his partner also had a child, their second. There is no immediate plan for him to leave, and the club’s ideal scenario is to keep counting on a player who has established himself among the team’s captains and become a key figure in the dressing room.
Last week, his agents paid a visit to Barcelona, where they held a meeting with Deco. The club’s sporting director told the player’s camp that their wish was to find a way to extend his contract again up to 2029 and ensure his future at the club. There is a verbal understanding that conversations over this could begin sooner rather than later. However, there are a few ‘buts’ here.
The first comes down to money. Will Barcelona’s salary offer match what the wider industry might suggest he is worth? Possibly not.
The second issue is the number of centre-backs Barca have. They now have four first-team options in Araujo, Jules Kounde, Inigo Martinez and Andreas Christensen. Add to that the emergence of Pau Cubarsi, who turned 17 just last month, and there are five.
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Then there is Eric Garcia, who has been impressing on loan at Girona and will come back, plus the club have been strongly linked with taking up their €7million re-purchase option for 20-year-old Morocco international Chadi Riad, who they sold to Real Betis last summer.
Among the other three first-team senior centre-backs, none could raise anywhere near the transfer fee Araujo might command. And looking towards next season, Barca want to grant Cubarsi a clear path to first-team football.
There are doubts about Bayern coming back with another bid in the summer, as their January approach was a personal request from Thomas Tuchel, whose future as manager now looks in doubt (he could be one of the options Barca consider to replace Xavi). The Premier League could be another potential destination.
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Barcelona need Araujo’s leadership, character and qualities on the pitch. But this summer, it’s going to be for them to decide if their financial needs come first.
Robert Lewandowski
The second half of last season was not particularly brilliant for Lewandowski, and he certainly has not been able to change the impression in this campaign.
When things go south at a club such as Barcelona, it should be expected that scrutiny will fall on the big names (with big salaries) who are not delivering. Lewandowski ticks those boxes and his future has become a hot topic in Catalonia of late.
Multiple senior sources at the club would welcome a lucrative offer for the striker, whose performance levels have dropped since the very bright start to his debut campaign in 2022-23 (he finished as La Liga top scorer last term, with 23 goals). But, again, the power here is on the player’s side.
Lewandowski has scored four goals in his past three La Liga games (DAX Images/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Spanish media has reported that Lewandowski is earning an average of €26million a year over each of the four seasons he signed with Barcelona. However, the fourth year of his contract is not fully guaranteed. He will need to have played in over 55 per cent of Barca’s matches in the 2024-25 season to activate it. Otherwise, Barca have the right to break the deal at three years.
If Barca were to explore a sale this summer, it is unlikely Lewandowski would be keen on the idea himself. The 35-year-old is extremely happy with life in Catalonia. He’s based in the coastal town of Castelldefels, very close to where Lionel Messi spent the majority of his many Barcelona years.
There are not many realistic destinations for the striker, either. It’s difficult to envisage many clubs being willing to pay a transfer fee for him while offering to match his current wages, beyond perhaps teams in Saudi Arabia. This is not a plan that the player’s camp is contemplating right now.
The only other element that Barca president Laporta might perhaps rely on is his relationship with Lewandowski’s agent, Pini Zahavi, who was crucial in bringing him in from Bayern.
However, even with Laporta and Zahavi working together to find a suitable offer, it seems extremely unlikely they can convince the player to abandon a place where he’s feeling as happy as he’s ever been.
Gavi
With Kylian Mbappe having communicated his decision to leave Paris Saint-Germain, the French club are already on the lookout for potential replacements.
Gavi is admired by PSG head coach Luis Enrique — the ex-Barca boss who handed him his senior debut for Spain, aged 17 — and club president Nasser Al-Khelaifi.
PSG already showed interest last summer, when discussions over Gavi’s complicated registration under La Liga salary rules were taking place. At the moment, he is still only registered thanks to a temporary court ruling that will need to be fully resolved sooner than later. If that hadn’t happened last year, Gavi could have left for free.
As we’ve already touched on here, Barcelona view Gavi as an ‘unsellable’ asset. But as we’ve also seen, in the context of the club’s financial situation, no player can truly be said to be ‘not for sale’.
Gavi is not keen on a move elsewhere. He has supported Barcelona since childhood and, now 19, is already one of their pillars on the pitch. They have missed his influence since the anterior cruciate ligament he suffered in November. Sources with knowledge of Gavi’s last contract extension believe there is practically no chance, given the character and the priorities of the footballer, of him leaving this summer.
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His contract at Barcelona runs through to 2026 and contains a €1billion release clause.
Raphinha
The former Leeds United winger Raphinha is another player Barca would be open to selling. The Brazilian arrived in the summer of 2022 in a deal brokered by Deco, who was acting as his agent back then but is now the club’s sporting director.
His arrival was a very strong bet for Barca — they paid almost €60million and signed him on a deal that runs until the summer of 2027. In his (almost) two seasons so far, Raphinha has played 72 games, scoring 14 goals and providing 19 assists. His numbers aren’t terrible, but he has frustrated many with his inconsistency.
When Raphina arrived, he had to fight to win a regular place from Ousmane Dembele. After the Frenchman was injured, he managed to do that despite competition from Ansu Fati and Ferran Torres.
Raphinha has struggled for consistency at Barca (Jose Manuel Alvarez/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images)
This term, 16-year-old Yamal’s sensational emergence seems to have taken away any real hope of permanently establishing himself on the right flank. Barca’s technical staff have been cautious with Yamal’s game time, but since Raphinha got injured again in mid-January, Yamal has picked up the pace and has overtaken him as the preferred starter.
Barca see Yamal as a player of huge importance, and they also believe his ideal competition should be Ferran Torres. This leaves three potential scenarios: either Barca try to switch Raphinha to the left flank, or they keep him on the bench as further backup, or they seek a sale. It seems they are more predisposed to the final option.
Again, there is nothing to suggest Raphinha himself is pushing for a departure, and he is under contract for a long time. He is comfortable at Barcelona and has several times spoken of the desire to prove himself at the highest level.
But his profile does seem to be one of the most feasible sale options Barca are looking at right now. Club sources believe good offers for him could come from the Premier League or Saudi Arabia.
(Top photo: Getty Images)
