Why isn’t Dani Olmo playing for Barcelona? Euro 2024 winner misses LaLiga clash against Athletic Bilbao despite Ilkay Gundogan transfer

New Barcelona man Dani Olmo is set to miss his club’s game against Athletic Bilbao this weekend despite Ilkay Gundogan’s exit.

The German international completed a free transfer back to Manchester City as the Spanish giants attempt to trim the wage bill.

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However, despite him going, Olmo still can’t play for Barcelona, which is a frustrating situation.

Here, talkSPORT.com looks into why the attacking midfielder still can’t play for his new club.

Why isn’t Dani Olmo playing for Barcelona?

Olmo started his career with Barcelona before leaving in 2014 to join Dinamo Zagreb.

From there, he headed to RB Leipzig before returning earlier this summer in a deal worth £51million.

However, he can’t play for Barca yet because the club cannot register him.

This is due to LaLiga’s salary cap, which is based on income but also debt, and teams that have been in debt recently, such as Barcelona, have their wage budget viciously slashed despite having incredible amounts of revenue.

But while Real Madrid‘s salary cap sits at €727m, Barcelona’s for this season is €270m, which is less than Atletico Madrid and much less than their great rivals.

Of course, Barcelona pay out huge wages to almost all of their squad, and until they get under the cap, Olmo won’t be able to play.

They had hoped that getting rid of Gundogan would create the space to register Olmo, but despite trimming £17m by letting Gundogan re-join City, reports in Spain suggest it isn’t enough.

Barcelona are going to have to sell more players before Olmo can actually play for them.

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As it stands, the Catalonian giants have spent more than £50m on an expensive addition to the training squad.

Olmo is in every day with Hansi Flick’s squad, but there is a chance he won’t play until the new year unless Barcelona shift some more players.

But despite the issues, Flick hopes to have Olmo registered soon.

Speaking about the problem, he said: “It’s not my job to register players. I like Olmo a lot, his work has been great, and he is ready to play.

“I hope to have him as soon as possible because his impact is very positive.”

LaLiga titans Barca are looking to sell up to nine players before the close of the transfer window.

Clement Lenglet, Mikayil Faye, Raphinha, Ansu Fati and Vitor Roque are among the players Barcelona are looking to move on to make space on the wage bill.

If they manage to get rid of one more first-team squad member, that should be enough to register Olmo.

Should they manage to move on any more players, that could open the door for some other incomings.

But before they start to think about that, they will just want to ensure Olmo can actually play in LaLiga this season.

Should they fail to create the required room on the wage bill, it would be a new low for this once-great club that dominated Europe.

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