FC Barcelona Registers Three New Players

FC Barcelona has registered three new players with its 2024/2025 La Liga season opener against Valencia at the Mestalla fast approaching.

Barca made its biggest signing of the summer so far before the weekend when agreeing to pay RB Leipzig $60 million (€55 million) plus a further $7.6 million (€7 million) in add-ons for Euro 2024 winner Dani Olmo.

On Sunday, SPORT reported that Olmo’s Spain teammate Nico Williams had agreed to join the Blaugrana, though raising his $67.8 million (€62 million) release clause, considering the outlay on Olmo, is a sticking point.

Barca has paid far less – just a few million dollars according to the same newspaper – for Pau Victor, who impressed on the preseason tour of the United States with Barca’s opening strike against Manchester City and a brace at Real Madrid’s expense in a rain-soaked, New Jesrsey edition of El Clasico.

But all this aside, Barca’s well-documented economic woes hamper not only being able to sign new squad members but also register them while staying on the right side of Financial Fair Play limits.

Players such as Olmo and Pau Victor aren’t currently cleared to feature in Saturday’s La Liga season opener against Valencia at the Mestalla, for example.

Yet while Barca had just kicked off its Joan Gamper Trophy match with AS Monaco on Monday evening in Europe, SPORT highlighted the fact that the Catalans have registered three new players with the Spanish top flight.

Namely they are Clement Lenglet, Ansu Fati and Olympic gold medalist Eric Garcia, who are interesting choices to say the least.

Though Lenglet and Fati impressed Flick in preseason, both players have been linked to exits from the club.

Lenglet needs to be offloaded because of his astronomical salary boosted by money deferred during the pandemic.

On the other hand, Fati is currently injured but has been told by Sporting Director Deco through his agent Jorge Mendes that there is no place for him in the starting XI, SPORT says.

As for Garcia, his inclusion is perhaps the least eyebrow-raising of all but it is worth noting that he’s taken priority over fellow central defender Inigo Martinez and has also been deemed surplus to requirements in the past.

Above all, the move could be a play to show potential buyers that the trio is still valued by the club.