Barcelona’s stormy season continues with their £51million summer signing potentially leaving for free in January.
The club’s financial issues aren’t going anywhere and are in a race against the clock to raise funds to keep hold of Dani Olmo when the winter window opens.
Olmo, who was one of the stars in Spain’s Euro 2024 winning squad, joined Barca from the German side RB Leipzigܫ on a six-year deal, though had issues being registered at the time.
The Catalans announced a collaboration with the club's hospitality provider Aramark, a deal that reportedly brought in around £34m.
♐However, they needed to raise more and eventually did so through their partnership with Nike.
💯It has been reported the 26-year-old is only registered for the first half of the season, and his side have a battle on their hands to secure his services for the second half.
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൩In total, he has played 12 times for his new side this season, scoring six goals and helping them to the top of the La Liga table.
It was reported at the start of the season that Barca accepted a six-month registration for Olmo as a settlement, with the player himself agreeing to one year's worth of registration when he joined.
President Joan Laporta is said to have claimed that there will be no issues for the club in terms of registering the player, but this is not the first time Barcelona have been in this situation.
It is reported that there could be a condition in Olmo's contract with the club that allows him to leave for free if he is not registered for the second half of the campaign.
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🗹It is, however, also believed that the player himself has full faith in the club to fix the issue and is focused on on-field matters rather than off-field issues.
🥀European Football Expert, Kevin Hatchard, joined Alan Brazil and Ally McCoist for their discussion on the Olmo situation.
Hatchard said the situation isn't something unexpected for Barca.
“This continuation of something that’s gone on for years now really," Hatchard said.
ཧ"Every time there’s a registration deadline, Barcelona just try to get more money into the pot.
🃏“The latest way they’re trying to do it is to sell VIP seats at the refurbished Camp Nou that’ll be for 20 years they believe they could bring in about 200 million from that.
𒀰"They have signed a big deal with Nike recently that is not going to be enough to register Dani Olmo, that’s the key it’s about registering Dani for the rest of the season."
꧒“What’s the story there? Can you explain that to us please?” McCoist asked.
“It is complex,” Hatchard said.
💎“The way they did it for the first half of the season was to do with injuries they had players out and so there is a bit of compensation in the sense that you can kind of move your salary cap around.
🅘“But when it gets to January they’ve then got to re-register and Andreas Christensen, who’s been out, is expected to return and therefore you don’t get that compensation anymore.
🐷“So they’ve got to jump through a few hoops to get Olmo registered otherwise technically he would be able to leave the club on a free.
😼“I’m sure they’ll find a way of getting enough money in but what it shows, I think the most important thing about the story, is not that Olmo will leave in January because I don’t think he will, it still shows they’re the club living hand to mouth a bit.
🌱“Their return to Camp Nou has been delayed, and it’s just all still a bit complicated and unsettling for them.
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𝓡“On the pitch, they’ve only won one in five in La Liga, they’re under pressure from Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid.”
💦Barcelona face Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League on Wednesday at 8pm.