Eric Garcia is writing the pages of a career that, for the moment, he remembers above that of Gerard Piqué. After 9 years at La Masia, the Martorell center-back left for Manchester in 2017, as Gerard Piqué had done in 2004. But Garcia signed for Manchester City, unlike Piqué, who wore the Manchester United red four years before returning to the Camp Nou to succeed. Now Eric Garcia is getting closer to returning to Barcelona three years later to try to make a place for himself in the axis of the Barcelona defense.
In the preview of the City’s Champions League round of 16 match against Madrid, Pep Guardiola admitted that the Catalan defender has decided not to renew his contract with the English club, which ends in the summer of 2021, because “he wants to play in another equipment ”. “Eric Garcia has announced that he does not want to renew his contract with Manchester City,” said the Santpedor coach, who made his Premier League debut. City, who had been talking to Garcia about his future for months and knew he had offers, are ready to negotiate the player’s departure, who prioritises returning to a Barça player who has his portfolio on the table.
Garcia’s departure in 2017, along with Jordi Mboula, who is now in Huesca after not succeeding in Monaco, opened the Pandora’s box at La Masia, which saw his best players leave because they thought they would have more opportunities far from home. Now Garcia wants to return and Barça want to recover a central team that knows it would not have much competition to end up having minutes. The untouchable central couple is Gerard Piqué, 33, and Clément Lenglet. But then Barça want to sell Todibo and find a way out for Umtiti, a player marked by injuries. Uruguayan Ronald Araujo, who has been with the subsidiary for two years, would be the fourth center-back waiting to receive an offer to leave Barça, who needs to sell first and pay a figure of between 20 and 25 million for the 19-year-old years. Interestingly, the negotiations will have to be done with one of Garcia’s childhood idols, Carles Puyol, who acts as his representative along with Iván de la Peña.
Arthur, ready to negotiate
Barça will have to start negotiating for Garcia just when they still have Arthur Melo’s portfolio pending. The Brazilian midfielder, who has been in Brazil for a few days refusing to return to Barcelona, will finally do so to negotiate his departure from the club. Barça and Juve agreed on an exchange of players according to which Arthur will go to Italy once the Champions League is over, and Miralem Pjanic, to Barça. But Arthur, unlike Pjanic, has refused to continue playing with his current club and wants to negotiate leaving for Juve right now. The club has threatened him with a fine for his behavior.
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