The election to vote for a new club president on 7 March is dominating Barcelona news and there has been a split in the three remaining candidates on a major issue.
The issue relates to Manchester City defender Eric Garcia, who has taken centre stage of Barcelona transfer news this calendar year due to his contract expiring this summer.
Read more: Eric Garcia left with a decision to make after Barcelona pull out of deal
This issue has now caused a split among the leading candidates in the election, as Victor Font argues that the player can be signed this month without impacting the current financial status of the Catalan club.
Font explained on Wednesday, as per quotes carried by El Mundo Deportivo: “City have agreed not to charge anything until next season and the player also renounces his salary until the next year, so the impact on the club’s economy now would be minimal, only €230k. You can sign him without paying anything now.
“There is no formal agreement with City, because we are a candidate, but we have made the necessary arrangements so that if Òscar Grau calls City, he will see that the agreement to incorporate Eric Garcia now is feasible.
“If Koeman considers his arrival as something fundamental and his incorporation is feasible from the economic point of view, then why is he not signed?”
Read more: Pep Guardiola gives Barcelona boost on Eric Garcia future
However, Font’s major competitor Joan Laporta has argued against the signing, saying that the club are not in a position to currently facilitate a deal that can be concluded in summer.
Laporta said, as per a separate El Mundo Deportivo report: “I remain in the position I had when this possibility was raised. If a player wants to go to Barça, he has to prove it and if in June he would come for free, it is hard for me to understand why we would have to give money to a competing club.”
As outlined by a report in Marca, the position of the remaining candidate Toni Freixa is that the player should only be signed for the same minimal fee that City paid to sign the player in 2017 – meaning he is in agreement with Laporta.
Reports have drawn parallels between Garcia and that of Gerard Pique – who left La Masia’s youth academy due to mismanagement and joined Manchester United, before returning to the Camp Nou and enjoying a long and distinguished career at the club.
The Blaugrana currently have Ronald Araujo, Clement Lenglet, Gerard Pique, Samuel Umtiti and Oscar Mingueza in the position.
Main image via Marca
