According to Marca, FC Barcelona is looking to offload some of their star players to continue in the race for Erling Haaland. The Catalans are looking to sell their two Frenchman Antonio Griezmann and Ousmane Dembele to land the Norwegian youngster.
The Spanish giants are currently in a very bad financial situation due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It is believed that Barcelona is in a debt of €1billion, as per a report in February. This financial situation forced them to cut wages of the staff and players of the club. While it also forced Barcelona to sign players from the free-agent market due to fewer funds.
However, the Catalans are still not thinking of giving up to sign Erling Haaland this summer. Barcelona is willing to sacrifice its dozen of players to arrange the funds to sign Haaland. While the list is led by the two French forwards Griezmann and Dembele who are available for transfer.
Barcelona paid a huge amount which can cross the figure €200 million to land the two Frenchman. But both the World Cup winners failed to live up to their expectations. Griezmann has appeared 98 times while scoring 34 goals and 16 assists in all competitions. While Dembele has appeared 118 times scoring 30 goals and 21 assists in all competitions.
Following this poor performance, Barcelona is looking to offload the two Frenchman. However, they are not alone in the list as they are accompanied by Phillipe Coutinho, Samuel Umtiti, Miralem Pjanic, and many others. But Barcelona is looking forward to earning a decent amount from the sale of the two Frenchmen due to their better performance than the others on the list.
Barcelona still continues to fight for Erling Haaland
Barcelona this season missed a natural striker as they let Luis Suarez leave as a free agent last season. However, they brought in Martin Braithwaite to fill his position, but the player failed miserably to fit the forward position. Due to which Ronald Koeman had to play Lionel Messi as a false no.9 in the team.
However, the Catalans have learned from their mistake and signed a forward in the transfer window. Barcelona has announced the signing of the Manchester City forward Sergio Aguero a few weeks back. This means for the time being they have solved the problem of a forward.
But Aguero is not seen as a long-term addition to the forward position due to his age. For which the Catalans are still fighting to sign Erling Haaland this summer. The 20-year-old has taken the transfer market by storm since signing for Borussia Dortmund.
Since his joining, he has done wonders in front of the goal. Haaland has gone to appear 59 times while scoring 57 goals and 15 assists, with recently winning the DFB Pokal Cup with Dortmund. The youngster has also been the top scorer in the Champions League this season.
Following these performances, Haaland has been on the radar of elite European clubs such as Manchester City and Chelsea. Barcelona have also included themselves in this list to sign the youngster. Due to this heavy attraction for Haaland, Dortmund has valued the player at a whopping price of €154 million.
Barcelona cannot afford that kind of price due to their current financial situation. For which they are going to sell Griezmann and Dembele to support their funds. But, likely, they cannot earn that kind of money to sign Haaland.
However, Barcelona are also trying to sign another free agent Memphis Depay as their forward. But we should not leave the chances of signing Haaland, as we know you should never say never in the transfer market. So, let’s wait and see if the Norwegian star would land in Spain or stays in German next season.
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