Barcelona only have 17 players officially registered with La Liga, just one day before their opening match of the season against Rayo Vallecano.
Barca kick off their new campaign at the Camp Nou against Rayo on Saturday evening and, as things stand, none of their new five signings can feature. The Catalan club have been busy generating headlines this summer, with their aggressive approach in the transfer window seemingly at odds with their financial state.
Talk of ‘economic levers’ and wage reductions have been as regular as the announcements of new signings. Barca have, in theory, made five high-profile signings this summer: Andreas Christensen, Franck Kessie, Raphinha, Robert Lewandowski and Jules Kounde. Another one – Marcos Alonso – is still expected to arrive, while Barca also want to sign Bernardo Silva, if possible.
Even though Christensen and Kessie were free transfers, from Chelsea and AC Milan respectively, these players have arrived at a cost of over €150million (£126m) in combined transfer fees. Yet they cannot take part in Saturday’s game against Rayo, due to La Liga’s strict salary cap rules, which haven’t been met by Barcelona.
So on Tuesday, when Barca made an announcement about shirt numbers, it was not what the fans might have been wanting and expecting. Instead of detailing the new arrivals, it confirmed that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Ferran Torres had switched numbers. The result is that only 17 players are registered.
They are: Marc-Andre Ter Stegen (1), Sergino Dest (2), Gerard Piqué (3), Ronald Araujo (4), Jordi Alba (18), Eric Garcia (24), Samuel Umtiti (without number), Sergio Busquets (5 ), Pedri (8), Miralem Pjanic (16), Frenkie de Jong (21), Nico Gonzalez (without number), Ferran Torres (11), Ansu Fati (10), Memphis Depay (14), Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (17) and Martin Braithwaite (without number).
HAVE YOUR SAY! What do you make of Barcelona's approach this summer? Comment below.
As explained by Sport, young homegrown players like Gavi, Alejandro Balde and Abde Ezzalzouli can play without being registered, so that takes the total up to 20. However, the number is actually much lower, with Barca keen to offload unwanted players to free up room in their colossal wage bill.
Umtiti, Gonzalez and Braithwaite haven’t been assigned numbers because they have no future in Xavi’s side. Gonzalez has already sealed a loan move to Valencia, while Barca remain desperate to offload Umtiti and Braithwaite before the end of the month to make space for the new arrivals.
The reason Barca have been able to get themselves into such an unusual situation is down to the ‘economic levers’ they have pulled. The club has sold 25 per cent of their domestic television rights for 25 years, 24.5 per cent of their in-house production company, Barca Studios, signed a new sponsorship deal with Spotify, and taken out a €500m loan from Goldman Sachs to spread out their debt repayments. A fifth lever could be the sale of De Jong, to either Manchester United or Chelsea.
That has given them money to sign players, but has not helped them in being able to reduce the wage bill. Reports have continually stated that Barca are ‘optimistic’ over finding a solution with La Liga, but they are leaving it to the very last minute.
