Preparing for the new season, Barca expects the Gundongan contract to be as effective as the Lewandowski deal last year.
1. Barcelona announced the signing of Ilkay Gundogan , the German midfielder who will turn 33 next October, as if it were a trophy.
The Barca brand still fascinates famous players like the former Man City captain. He prioritized the Catalan giants over renewing with the team led by Pep Guardiola after winning the Champions League, as well as turning down a million-dollar offer from Saudi Arabia.
Recruiting Gundogan is also Barca ‘s current model , when the club has a debt of 1.35 billion euros, as well as the salary fund is expected to decrease to 528 million euros for next season.
Although unable to compete with the strongest clubs in European football, most of whom pay high transfer fees for the best players at the peak of their careers, Barca bets on players who are out of date. contract.
These are free transfers, most of which are over 30 years old. These cases want to complete their adventure at the top of Europe for a few more years before retiring with paychecks in the US or Asia.
Now Barca cannot buy young stars who have established themselves as Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid), or formerly Erling Haaland (Man City). Instead, the team convinced Gundogan to move from Manchester City to Barcelona.
The contract period is the key for Gundogan to decide to join Barca without staying at the club that has just won the treble.
The deal with Barca has a term of 2 years, plus the option to extend to a 3rd year, plus 9 million euros after tax. Meanwhile, the English football champions offered a one-year term, which can be extended for another year.
This deal is similar to the case of Robert Lewandowski (who will turn 35 in August) and Barca will continue with Inigo Martinez (32 years old), whose contract with Bilbao expires.
2. The rich and powerful of the Bundesliga as well as the Premier League offer one-year contracts – or a 1 + 1 formula – to players over the age of 30 who have reached the peak of their careers. Lewandowski and Gundogan are examples.
The Polish striker was forced to move to Barca because of a failure to reach an agreement with Bayern Munich, and he had a very good season in Spain: 33 goals, including 23 that helped him win La Liga’s top scorer.
The expectations that Barca place on Gundogan are also very high, after the German-Turkish international finished a great season at City.
The understanding between Gundogan and Lewandowski is the key to the future. The two were friends while at Dortmund.
Xavi Hernandez needs players in good form to immediately ensure success without delay, as the team won last La Liga. The immediacy is even more imposed after the leverage effect ceases to exist.
Barca cannot spend as much money as last summer, with Pablo Torre (5 million euros), Raphinha (58+9), Kounde (50+12,5) and Lewandowski himself (45+5). There was only one thing left to trigger: selling players that weren’t part of Xavi’s plans.
The option to sign players with a free letter, even if their contracts later increased economically, worked for Christensen but not as expected in the case of Kessie.
At the Joan Gamper center, people expect the Gundogan and Martinez deal to bear fruit.
The bigger problem is finding a replacement for captain Busquets. The priority is Brozovic but it is difficult, while the other option is Parejo or Romeu, or risk Nico, the 21-year-old midfielder who was loaned to Valencia last season.
Xavi understands that in recent years there has been a setback in La Masia’s player training.
3. Ronald Koeman was not successful at Camp Nou, but he is credited with leaving players like Pedri or Gavi as an inheritance, besides helping Araujo mature.
They all became untouchable elements in Xavi’s football project. The farewell of veterans Busquets, Jordi Alba and before that Pique helped the club save significantly on wages, thereby registering to renew Gavi and Araujo with La Liga.
However, registering Inigo Martinez and Gundogan is not possible at the moment.
Barca’s priority is to release five players on loan with a total salary of about 51 million euros: Lenglet, Umtiti, Dest, Collado and Gustavo Maia.
Besides, the biggest challenge comes from the transfer of some players from the first team such as Ferran Torres and Ansu Fati. There will be no new registrations without cutting the current team.
Next season’s finances are also affected when moving from Camp Nou to Montjuic with less seats. In the meantime, Barca awaits UEFA’s response to the Negreira scandal (paying former referee officials for match advice) to learn about the future in the European Cup.
Barca don’t have the resources of Real Madrid or the Premier League, but try to distance themselves from losing prominence clubs like Milan, which also compete with Gundogan.
“Barcelona or nothing ,” Gundogan said of his choice. The Barca brand still has great appeal and the club tries to capitalize on this when there is no economic leverage.