Barcelona had hit a roadblock in the registration of their new signings recently, but have now received a massive breakthrough in it. The Catalans have welcomed a total of five new faces so far, spending over €150 million. While Frank Kessie and Andreas Christensen were signed as free agents, Jules Kounde [€53m], Raphinha[€62m] and Robert Lewandowski [€50m] were also acquired.
However, their financial condition which has been in a turmoil kept them from registering all of them. Moreover, La Liga raised doubts over the funds through which the Catalans accomplished such lucrative signings. The Spanish League further blocked their initial attempt of registering the five players, adding to their miseries.
A significant pay-cut as well by one player to rescue Barcelona
Barcelona have so far activated three of the economic levers which have helped them with such massive signings. They first sold a total of 25% of their La Liga TV rights to American giants Sixth Street for the next 25 years. The Catalans did so in two different deals, which followed a third lever being activated after they offloaded 24.5% of Barca Studios to Socios.com last week.
These three levers reportedly earned them whopping funds of around €567 million which were then diverted in the acquisition of new players. However, that still didn’t help them with the registration of new signings, as a result of which the La Liga side has decided to execute the fourth lever.
According to Spanish outlet SPORT, Barcelona are now ready to sell another hefty chunk of the Barca Studios, around 24.5% to the GDA Luma investment fund. This move will be further coupled by a significant salary reduction from club legend Gerard Pique, according to Gerard Romero.
Romero claims that Pique has agreed to a major pay-cut in order to help the club register all of their signings so far. While a number of high earners have abstained from taking a salary-cut, Pique has once again thrown himself first in line to do so.
The center-back was also the first player to reduce his wages by a substantial amount in January this year as a result of which Barca registered the likes of Eric Garcia and Memphis Depay. He again ready to do so, in an attempt to inspire other teammates in Frenkie de Jong and Sergio Busquets to follow in his footsteps and accept salary-reductions.
On the other hand, wantaway striker Martin Braithwaite has rejected to agree to a reduction and has demanded he be paid full wages from remaining two years of his contract if the club wishes to get rid of him. Nonetheless, Barcelona are still looking to acquire new players with president Joan Laporta confirming the imminent signing of Chelsea full-back Marcos Alonso.