Barcelona have been going through a difficult financial period since the pandemic hit, exacerbating already existing financial issues. Those have taken their toll in recent years, impacting their ability to sign players, but they are yet to make a major sale beyond the exits of Antoine Griezmann and Ousmane Dembele. That could change this summer, despite their attempts to move on Frenkie de Jong 18 months ago.
According to Sport, Barcelona are considering the sale of one of Ronald Araujo, Andreas Christensen and Jules Kounde next summer. The Uruguayan is the least likely to leave as Barcelona consider him a key piece, but there is no doubt that he would fetch more of a fee than any other of his teammates, with Bayern Munich interested in him.
The news that Chadi Riad is likely to be signed back from Real Betis only fuels that idea, and with Inigo Martinez likely to stay too, Barcelona may seek to make some money on Kounde or Christensen, half of their historic and title-winning defence last season.
🚨 JUST IN: Barcelona will sell a defender in the summer, and most likely it will be either Christensen or Koundé. @sport pic.twitter.com/MjOGWaO9SK
— barcacentre (@barcacentre) December 25, 2023
The former has been error-prone this season, but may be saved by the fact that he arrived for €50m just 18 months ago. Barcelona would have to sell him for upwards of €30m just to start making any money back on him in terms of their salary limit. Christensen on the other hand wants first-team football, and having arrived for free, would bring Barcelona much more financial benefit.
Even if Christensen has perhaps performed better than Kounde since both arrived, he is two years older and perhaps has a lower ceiling than Kounde, which makes him a softer blow in terms of what they are losing. As early as the spring of last year, there were also reports of sections of Barcelona’s board being content to sell Christensen. Kounde was linked with an exit briefly last summer, but more because he was not playing in his favoured position, rather than from the club’s end.
