Transfer News: Barcelona To Sell French Star To Make Room For Messi, New Signings

The Barcelona summer transfer window continues to chug on.

It has since been previously reported that the Catalan club is going through financial troubles due to the COVID-19 pandemic from last year.

Other than the economic fallout from the 2020 pandemic, Barcelona is also in deep talks with Lionel Messi for a contract extension.

In a tweet by Matteo Mercato of Sky Sports that is translated below, the next Barcelona move is linked to Messi and Antoine Griezmann.

“Barca is waiting for the right offer. That’s right, Antoine Griezmann can leave. The Premier League is an option–especially with money and players as exchanges. But let’s see what the Frenchman and his family, who are still very fond of Madrid, think. It is not a surprise.”

Barcelona is very much aware that they can’t keep both players and their priority is keeping their star player until he retires.

To this effort, the club has allowed the departures of Jean-Clair Todibo, Junior Firpo and Francisco Trincao.

90min has reported that the club will be needing to shed £170 million ($235.5 million) from their wage bill in order to make a sufficient offer to keep Messi in Spain.

The problem is that there will be little suitors for a potential Griezmann move, but it’s speculated that Manchester City could be going for Griezmann if they miss out on Harry Kane this summer.

Messi has not yet agreed to a contract with Barcelona because other than the economic problem, the player has been questioning if management could build a team that could compete for major silverware in the coming seasons.

To their credit, Barcelona has done just that. The club has been able to acquire Sergio Aguero, Memphis Depay, Eric Garcia and Emerson.

But therein lies the problem.

Their newest transfer signings cannot officially play a game for Barcelona yet, again due to the £170 million ($235.5 million) that still needs to be cut from their salary.

As it stands, the club is looking at moving Samuel Umtiti, Miralem Pjanic and Philippe Coutinho to help offset the massive bill staring at their faces.

Mundo Deportivo reports that Barcelona is also looking to sell Neto, Martin Braithwaite and Carles Alena in the hopes to free up space.

Barcelona is in quite a bind this summer, but they’ll have to swallow the pill if they want to keep Messi around.