Barcelona news has been dominated in recent weeks by their ambition to sign Eric Garcia.
The Manchester City centre-back, who joined the English club from Barcelona in 2017, sees his contract expire this coming summer and is said to be intent on returning to Catalonia and installing himself in the first team at Barcelona.
A deal was virtually agreed last summer only for Barcelona to baulk at the transfer fee demanded by City. Then, this January, there was talk that another deal had been agreed, and that it was nailed on that the player would join in the summer and possibly in January if both clubs could agree a deal.
Then, Barcelona’s presidential elections were delayed from 24 January until 7 March, meaning that there’s nobody in charge at the club to sanction the move.
Of Joan Laporta, Victor Font and Toni Freixa, the three candidates in the race, relatively close attitudes exist regarding his signing. All like him but believe they can’t finance the deal this winter.
Ronald Koeman is said to want him this winter to reinforce his defence but at the same time understands the difficult situation the club find themselves in from a financial perspective.
According to La Vanguardia and carried by Mundo Deportivo, the managing board currently in charge of Barcelona met today and decided not to execute any agreement with Garcia, neither move for him now nor sign a pre-contract to come into effect on 1 July.
The idea instead is for the new president to decide on Garcia after winning the 7 March elections. Sources close to the club and the player confirms that this is the situation, which means that Garcia is able to negotiate a pre-contract with whomever he wants from now until the end of his current deal.
Garcia’s great dream is to sign for Barcelona, but now he has a choice on his hands. He can wait for the new president to come in or he could try to close a deal with another club for fear of an injury disrupting his plans to negotiate in the summer.
