Malcom sale to fund Barcelona’s latest defensive reinforcement
Barcelona will fund a move for Junior Firpo with the latest sale
Malcom has officially left the club. One year after cancelling a move to Roma at the last minute and flying to Catalonia instead, the 21-year old Brazilian winger has joined Zenit St.Petersburg in a €45 million deal from Barcelona.
It is a bittersweet deal. While Malcom’s sale brings in a potential €4 million profit, the promise that he brought with him from Bordeaux is gone. A signing which was hailed as long-sighted and which caused significant controversy is now almost irrelevant in club history.
But it has an overarching positive side. Malcom’s departure is going to fund Barça’s latest defensive reinforcement, which is certainly going to be a very crucial signing. It is the move for Real Betis left-back Junior Firpo.
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Betis and Barça have reached an agreement over a fee for the Dominican-born full-back, and the €25 million for the deal will come from the fee paid by Zenit to sign Malcom. In this context, the Brazil international’s sale is not so gloomy after all.
Barça really need a backup to Jordi Alba after letting go of Marc Cucurella once and for all. A lot of options have been considered, including high-profile ones like Filipe Luís. But Firpo is clearly the man for the job, and negotiations have been ongoing for a long time.
Next. Coutinho still on the transfer list at Barça. dark
Finally, Barça have got Real Betis to lower their demands while securing the funds to finalise the deal by offloading Malcom. So, it is a win-win situation and has allowed the newly-promoted Éric Abidal to score immediate brownie points.