Lautaro Martinez has signed a pre-contract with Real Madrid that will prevent him from signing for Barcelona in the coming summer transfer market.
Barcelona is left stone-cold upon hearing the news emerging from Italy regarding the Catalan club’s long term target, Lautaro Martinez. The board of Barca had promised Lionel Messi to fulfill his wishes by signing either Neymar or Lautaro Martinez in the coming summer to rebuild a winning squad that would be strong enough to compete for the Champions League.
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However, the dreams of Barcelona and Lionel Messi was crushed a few weeks ago when Paris Saint-Germain refused to lower their price set on the world’s most expensive player. The Parisian team wanted a minimum of 200 million euros from the La Liga Leaders to compensate for the investment that PSG made in 2017 to sign the Brazilian for a world record fee of 222 million euros.
With Neymar out of the frame, the board at the Camp Nou were convinced that they would sign Lautaro Martinez from Inter Milan as a long term replacement for Luis Suarez, however, Real Madrid have carried out another masterplan that will have major repercussions at Barca and several possible internal disputes as well.
Don Balon claims that the Argentine striker had already signed a pre-contract with Real Madrid last summer and the Inter Milan striker’s agent closed the deal with Florentino Perez.
Although the San Siro hero has signed a pre-contract with Real Madrid, Barcelona can still negotiate with the Argentine forward and possibly sign the player as well in the summer if they have the funds to do so, however, the Catalans would have to pay a heavy compensation fee to their arch-rivals as it is stated in the contract and the fee has not yet been disclosed.
Barca is struggling with their finances due to the COVID-19 outbreak and the club has already found themselves in a tightrope for the upcoming summer transfer market.
Although Bartomeu and his team do not have the means to afford the 111 million price tag set on Lautaro Martinez, if they do somehow manage to raise sufficient funds, the Catalans would then face the issue of paying off the compensation to the Los Blancos.
Florentino Perez has carried out yet another masterclass plan that will cause several issues in the Camp Nou. With neither Neymar or Lautaro Martinez arriving in the summer, it is quite likely that either Josep Maria Bartomeu would step down from his position as president of the club or Lionel Messi would walk away as a free agent in the summer due to his special clause in his contract.