Emissaries of the German fund set to purchase 16% of Barca Studios arrived in Spain this morning to sign off on the deal, although it will be structured slightly differently than first revealed. However, the money raised will be enough for Barca to register most of the key players ahead of the Getafe game.
A report in Mundo Deportivo confirms that Barcelona president Joan Laporta will close the deal today which will enable him to register key members of the squad ahead of Sunday’s La Liga opener against Getafe.
The German Fund will initially purchase 5% of Barca Studios for €20 million and that deal is set to be signed today. The remaining 11% will be purchased before the end of the transfer window for the sum of €40 million.
The €20 million that Barca will receive today, along with the money from the Franck Kessie deal that was concluded this week, and the Ousmane Dembele deal which should also be finalised today, will give them enough room to register the vast majority of players.
Who will Barcelona prioritise for registration this weekend?
Ronald Araujo, Alejandro Balde, Iñaki Peña, and Sergi Roberto who all signed extensions will be registered in time, and there is also room to register new signings ilkay Gündogan and Oriol Romeu.
If Barcelona can’t secure all the registrations this weekend, it’s like that Iñigo Martínez and Marcos Alonso will be left for later in August, once the final part of the deal with the German fund is completed.
That makes perfect sense considering Iñigo Martínez has yet to feature this pre-season as he works his way back from injury, it’s likely he’s still a few weeks away from competing for a first-team spot, so it doesn’t make sense to prioritise his registration early.
Marcos Alonso has an impressive performance against Tottenham in the Joan Gamper Trophy but Alejandro Balde is the starting left-back, and other players are capable of filling that role if anything were to happen to the young Spanish star.
It’s still a sad state of affairs that we need to have this conversation every single year. The race against the clock to get players registered is a constant frustration among fans and analysts, but it does highlight that despite Barca making several signings this summer, their financial situation is still pretty perilous.
Barca President Joan Lamporta is doing a fine job in helping Barca work its way out of the trouble, but there is no quick fix. It will be years until the Catalan club are back on an even footing.