Barcelona’s deals for key midfield duo have ‘Anti-Saudi Arabia’ clauses – report | OneFootball

Having already announced the renewal of Pedri, Barcelona are gearing up for more renewal of a key midfielder this week.

Indeed, Gavi is poised to sign a new deal today once he meets the Barcelona hierarchy at Camp Nou offices.

Gavi is expected to sign a long-term contract at Barcelona until 2030, with a release clause same as Pedri: A whopping €1 billion.

The anti-Saudi Arabia clause

However, the value of the release clause and the contract durations are the only similarities between the new deals for Pedri and Gavi.

According to Cadena SER, Barcelona have attached a special clause to prevent Saudi Arabia from roping in these players in the coming years.

Barcelona might not need to worry about Saudi Arabia in Gavi, Pedri deals (Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images)

The mechanism of the clause is quite simple, entailing that Saudi Arabian clubs simply cannot sign either Pedri or Gavi simply by meeting their release clause.

This could be a prudent move by Barça in their bid to retain their star players for the foreseeable future.

After all, Saudi Arabian football has shown immense financial firepower in recent weeks, roping in some of the top players in the world to the Pro League.

This list includes even the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Moussa Diaby. The Saudi Arabian government has made even greater efforts to rope in players such as Vinicius Junior.

Keeping that in mind, there is no reason why they wouldn’t try the same for someone like Pedri or Gavi, two players who are widely expected to become the next great leaders in midfield for Barcelona.