In the latest transfer news Erling Haaland to Barcelona and Kylian Mbappe to Barcelona has been mentioned, as the presidential campaign continues to ramp up at the Catalan club.
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That’s right. Both players have been linked with moves to Barcelona.
Barca’s presidential elections will take place in March and one of the contenders, Toni Friexa, has said superstar players will be brought in if he is elected as the new leader of the Spanish giants.
First up, Freixa told RAC1 in Spain that he will have $304 million worth of financing to bring in star players and help the club get in a much better financial situation.
“We have been working for some time now and we can say that we have reached an agreement of intent with an investor who will contribute 250 million [euros] for Barcelona Coporate, which consists of four business lines, in exchange for 49 per cent,” Freixa said.
“Although it will first have to go through the Assembly. We will have the funds for the economic situation to improve so that we can make sporting decisions. And in 2021/22 we will incorporate three superstars: two in attack and one in defence.”
Asked specifically about bringing in the likes of Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland, he then put aside that sensible financial talk and just, well, went for it.
“We have a maxim: we will never talk about players until we present them,” Freixa said. “It’s a bad strategy because you allow other clubs to step on your negotiation. But it is absolutely possible. That’s what Barcelona must do: bring in difference-making players.”
Would Mbappe and Haaland to Barcelona be possible?
Look, we’ve all seen the contract Lionel Messi is on and if he leaves Barcelona this summer at the end of that contract, as expected, that will free up a lot of cash.
But is that enough to buy Mbappe and Haaland?
The latter can be bought for $90 million in 2022 due to a release clause, while Mbappe has just 17 months left on his contract at PSG and has been routinely linked with a move to Real Madrid.
Haaland is 20 years old and Mbappe is 22, and they will be the next superstar duo in the world. There’s no doubt about that. And there’s no doubting that they could play in the same team together. Haaland up top and Mbappe off the left.
But with a huge cost-cutting exercise already shedding some of the well-documented financial pain at Barcelona, is it really wise to spend huge sums on two players rather than being more frugal and using their famed academy to bring through a few new stars?
I get it. If you’re losing Messi, you need to add a couple of stars just to bridge that gap and Mbappe and Haaland would certainly do that.
All of this feels like political posturing ahead of the election in a few weeks’ time and we will hear a lot more of this from the presidential candidates.
It seems like Freixa has a pretty solid amount of investment lined up to save Barcelona, but talk of signing these kind of stars makes you think they could be in a very similar situation in a few years’ time.
