Barcelona still need €20 million to register last remaining signing | OneFootball

Barcelona had to scramble to get the registration of some of their new signings in time for the La Liga season opener against Rayo Vallecano last weekend.

With the game on Saturday night, Barça were able to successfully register four of their five new arrivals late on Friday as Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha, Andreas Christensen and Franck Kessie were all officially included in the club’s squad.

Along with the quartet, Ousmane Dembele and Sergi Roberto, who signed contract renewals with the Blaugrana were also registered. That left Jules Kounde as the only unregistered member on Xavi Hernandez’s roster.

Barcelona vice-president Rafa Yuste insisted earlier this week that the Frenchman’s registration would be taken care of by the end of the week, in time for their second La Liga encounter of the season against Real Sociedad at the Anoeta.

However, there has been no development on that front as of yet. And now, journalist Alfredo Martinez is reporting that Barcelona need at least €20 million to successfully register Kounde with La Liga.

Kounde reportedly is on wages of around €9.5 million per year and given his amortization quota is fixed at around €10 million, a total of ~€20 million would be needed to successfully register him as a Barcelona player.

The imminent departure of Memphis Depay could help to an extent as it would free up the share of his wages even if he leaves on a free transfer. Whether that would be enough to successfully register Kounde remains the question, however.

Talks with Gerard Pique over a downward renewal have hit a roadblock while negotiations with Sergio Busquets for his salary deferral have also come to a standstill.

Given the situation, it is not hard to fathom why Barcelona are so eager to sell Frenkie de Jong as his departure would address a large share of their issues while also aiding them any other potential incomings before the end of the transfer window.