The 4 Barcelona players out on loan in 2024-25 & how they’ve been faring
Barcelona have made a stellar start to life under new boss Hansi Flick, sitting pretty at the top of the La Liga table with eight wins from nine so far.
But what about the players that were deemed surplus to requirements when it came to Flick’s Barca squad this season? The club hierarchy decided to send four players out on loan back in August.
Enough of the season has now passed for us to make an early assessment of how they’re faring out on loan.
Oriol Romeu
Last summer Barcelona looked back to La Masia when it came to filling a Busquets-shaped hole in their midfield.
Former Southampton stalwart Romeu had enjoyed a fine campaign back in Catalonia with Girona in 2022-23 and as such appeared a decent cut-price stop-gap solution.
But it quickly became apparent that Romeu is no Busquets. He ended up playing a peripheral role back at his boyhood club last season and has now been sent back to Girona.
The 33-year-old has picked up where he left off at the Estadi Montilivi, while Girona made a massive leap forward in his absence last year by qualifying for the Champions League.
He’s done alright at the base of their midfield, particularly in an agonising 1-0 defeat away to PSG in their European opener, but another top-four push looks unrealistic following a summer exodus.
Once again Girona resemble the solid if unspectacular midtable La Liga side that Romeu left for their Catalan neighbours.
Vitor Roque
Back in January, Barcelona acted to save their their ailing La Liga title retention bid by fast-tracking highly-rated Brazilian forward Vitor Roque’s move from Athletico Paranaense.
In hindsight, it did neither the player nor the club much good as he looked too raw to make an instant impact in a new continent.
The decision to send him out on loan to Real Betis could be best for all concerned. The player is gaining valuable experience in the Spanish top flight, Betis are getting a potentially difference-making forward and Barcelona ought to see one of their young assets develop his game.
The 19-year is getting eased in slowly by Manuel Pellegrini. He’s started just three games so far and played fewer than 400 minutes in all competitions.
He opened his account with a goal against Leganes last month, but drew a blank and was taken off an hour in Los Verdiblancos’ painful 1-0 defeat to city rivals Sevilla at the weekend.
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Clement Lenglet
The writing has been on the wall for Lenglet’s Barcelona for some time, despite a lengthy contract that runs until 2026.
He’s spent the last two seasons out on loan at Tottenham and Aston Villa, but featuring intermittently and unconvincingly in the Premier League failed to have the desired ‘shop window’ effect.
The Frenchman is now on a third successive loan away after Barcelona once again unable to find any suitors that’d take him on permanently, back in Spain with Atletico Madrid.
He’s once again struggled for regular minutes, but Diego Simeone handed him his debut at the weekend.
He played the full 90 minutes in a 1-1 draw away to Real Sociedad, but in fairness there was nothing he could’ve done to stop Luka Sucic’s long-range wonderstrike for the late equaliser.
Alex Valle
The 20-year-old homegrown left-back has never actually made an appearance for Barcelona’s senior team, having spent the last few years developing his skills in the B team before experience away on loan at Andorra and Levante.
In August, he extended his contract with Barcelona to 2026 before joining Celtic on a season-long loan.
He’s only made one start for Brendan Rodgers’ side so far, a hard-fought 2-1 win at Ross County on the weekend.
He also featured in the second half of Celtic’s humbling 7-1 mauling away to Borussia Dortmund, albeit he came out it with some credit as an upgrade on Greg Taylor, who was run ragged by hat-trick scorer Karim Adeyemi in the first half.
Celtic only conceded two after Valle’s introduction – how’s that for a consolation?
