The unexpected absence of an FC Barcelona first team star from training on Friday has fueled talk … [+]
The unexpected absence of an FC Barcelona first team star from training has fueled talk that he could be sold in the coming days.
With not much over 24 hours until the Blaugrana makes its 2024/2025 La Liga home debut against Athletic Club at the Montjuic Stadium, Andreas Christensen didn’t report for training at the Joan Gamper CT on Thursday morning in Catalonia.
Such a development has fueled rumors that the club might be in talks to sell the Dane.
After all, Mika Faye recently missed training and is now on the verge of joining Rennes as reported by various outlets including Mundo Deportivo.
Last weekend, Ilkay Gundogan was a surprise ommission from Hansi Flick’s Matchday 1 squad that traveled to Valencia for the Catalans’ season opener.
Gerard Romero tweeted that anonymous club sources told him ‘Gundo’ would sit out the eventual 2-1 win because of a blow to the eyebrow picked up in the Joan Gamper Trophy loss to AS Monaco almost a fortnight ago.
As we now know, though, Gundogan is off on his way back to former club Manchester City as revealed by The Athletic.
Despite him being one of the top performers in 2023/2024, Barca will let the midfielder rejoin City for free as he recinds a contract that had around two years remaining on it.
Barca paid nothing for Gundogan 14 months ago because he arrived on a free transfer, but it should ideally look to make something on a figure that has proven himself to still belong in the elite at the age of 33.
At least if Christensen is sold, Barca wants to receive money for the centre back and pivot.
Like with Gundogan, Barca paid nothing for his services two summers ago when his Chelsea deal expired, and this week has seen reports from SPORT on Barca being open to a sale as it needs to balance the books to register new signing Dani Olmo.
According to the same outlet, however, Christensen’s absence has nothing to do with transfer negotiations and can instead be explained by him suffering some physical discomfort, which has been corroborated by MARCA too.
