The latest operation that has closed the sports dome in this regard is the departure, with the letter of freedom, of the Brazilian goalkeeper Neto, who will play for Bournemouth in the English Premier League. In this way, the club has been solving files that involve the departure of the players discarded by Xavi Hernández. But in this list of footballers who do not count for the Blaugrana coach, there are still two cases of difficult solution, such as Martin Braithwaite, comfortable in Barcelona despite his residual presence of minutes under the orders of the Egaren coach and that until now he has shown no intention of interrupting his contract (valid until June 2024), and that of Samuel Umtiti. “We have offered letters of freedom, but they don’t want them,” club sources point out to ARA.
The Danish striker received a whistle as a penalty from the Camp Nou this Sunday when his name was called over the public address system during the presentation of the team. A bad trance that spared the French centre-back, absent after he already received whistles at the Gamper, then at the Johan Cruyff stadium, last year. Umtiti already has his neck down that he will have to find a team, a pattern that has been repeated for some time, since Barça has been trying to get rid of him for more than two years without success.
Broadly speaking, there are two reasons that have prevented the defender from finding a solution to his ostracism at Camp Nou. One is his physical condition, conditioned by the chronic injury to his left knee that he has suffered since just after the 2018 World Cup, which he won with France. And the other, the disproportionate contract he signed before falling out of favor, an agreement until 2023 that made him one of the best paid in the team. The combination of these two factors made it impossible to explore real exit options for Umtiti. Now, however, there is an important nuance that plays in favor of Barça: the renewal that he signed in January until 2026, a 100% economic measure to generate fair play and be able to register Ferran Torres.
With this deal, the central waived 10% of his base salary and deferred a number of amounts in exchange for a longer contract and a freedom letter option from 2023. Meanwhile, the club spaced out payments and especially he could offer the player to other teams without them being so scared of his salary. “The sum of the four years of the new contract is lower than what was owed to him between deferrals and the year of salary he was left to receive,” they defend to ARA from the club.
The agreed formula
However, Xavi does not count on Umtiti for anything and, despite several failed attempts to place him in France or Italy, Barça is not throwing in the towel and has agreed a formula with the player to deal with his departure, which very it probably won’t close until the end of the market. Faced with the difficulty of agreeing a settlement with the French and terminating his contract – doing so unilaterally would not generate fair play and yes, a new legal headache for the club -, according to the Blaugrana entity, it has been agreed with Umtiti that he will be paid the economic difference that he stops receiving in respect of the new conditions that he can sign with his new club. The Frenchman will continue to cost Barça money, but the Blaugrana managers are confident that this will resolve an entangled case.
The defender shares representatives with Xavi (also with Piqué) and the club hopes that this can play in favor of Barça’s interests, although they are aware of the difficulty of ending once and for all with this folder. Apart from the fourth lever and initialing the exit operation, we are also working with the salary reductions of Piqué and Busquets, a formula that was already applied last year to be able to register the signings in the League. The preparation of the parties is good, although the situation with the central will be resolved before with the first captain, who has been offered to extend his contract (which ends this year) to space out the payments.
