FC Barcelona has decided which player will be its first summer signing according to SPORT, which cited anonymous sources.
The Blaugrana will attempt to make the loan moves of Joao Cancelo and Joao Felix, borrowed from Manchester City and Atletico Madrid respectively until June 30, permanent ahead of the 2024/2025 season.
Finding the right formula to get the Portuguese pair over the line won’t be easy, however.
City might be more open to letting Cancelo go as he has long been surplus to requirements at the Etihad under Barca legend Pep Guardiola as communicated by the PremierPINC League champions’ willingness to ship him out to Bayern Munich and then the Catalans on a temporary basis.
Felix is hardly Mr. Popular with Atleti boss Diego Simeone and the club from the Spanish capital’s fervent fans either.
Yet we could be talking about a figure north of $100 million to seal the Joaos in times of financial hardship for the Barca, who it is widely thought will need two big player sales to head to the transfer market and navigate Financial Fair Play Limits.
Because of these factors, a player that has been dubbed Barca’s first summer signing is technically one that is already on the books and will therefore be much easier to incorporate into the first team squad next term under the outgoing head coach Xavi Hernandez’s still to be employed successor.
Julian Araujo was famously bought 18 seconds after the 2023 winter transfer window closed but his transfer from the LA Galaxy was still allowed to go ahead.
Then on August 1 in the same year, he was loaned out to Las Palmas where he has been performing impressively under former Barcelona B boss Javi Garcia Pimienta.
Barca co-ordinator Bojan Krkic has been following Araujo’s progress closely. And though the opinion of the man that will replace Xavi – who is set to step down on June 30 – will be important, the sports department led by Sporting Director Deco plans to have Araujo on hand to hopefully provide positional rivalry for Cancelo.
Cancelo and Araujo both play at right back, but a shortage of options on the opposite channel not helped by injuries to Alejandro Balde and Marcos Alonso means that Cancelo has often operated there instead while Ronald Araujo or Jules Kounde fills in.
