In the past month, The Athletic has reported on Barcelona’s transfer interest in Athletic Bilbao winger Nico Williams and RB Leipzig attacking midfielder Dani Olmo.
It is easy to see why Barca would want to sign those players. They were key figures in Spain’s European Championship triumph — Williams, 22, was arguably La Roja’s most exciting player alongside 17-year-old Lamine Yamal, his friend who is already at Barca, and the 26-year-old Olmo finished as the tournament’s joint-top scorer with three goals.
Less clear is how Barca would be able to afford them. We know about the club’s €1billion ($1.1bn; £843million at current exchange rates) debt, which led to them pulling financial ‘levers’ — selling off a chunk of their business for an instant cash hit in exchange for a portion of future revenue — just to register players with La Liga in previous transfer windows.
Little has changed in their precarious finances, so how should we be reading these rumours?
Get the latest transfer news on The Athletic…
What is the latest with Williams and Olmo?
President Joan Laporta and new coach Hansi Flick have spoken about their interest in bringing Williams and Olmo to Barcelona — which would mean triggering Williams’ €58million release clause and paying Leipzig roughly €60m for Olmo.
GO DEEPER
The Transfer DealSheet: Ivan Toney latest, De Gea future, PSG want Williams
Athletic Bilbao are adamant they want Williams to stay and their president, Jon Uriarte, criticised the Spanish Football Federation during the Euros for not doing more to protect the player from being asked questions about his future.
Williams is, right now, at the very top of Barcelona’s priority list regarding transfers this summer. The club are willing to pay his release clause in order to sign him but they are still waiting for a definitive response from the player, who is well aware of the interest, as sources from the player’s camp and Barcelona confirm.
The wait over Williams’ final decision is putting every other major movement on standby — and that includes Olmo.
Barcelona are in contact with the Spain international’s agents but no significant progress is expected to be concluded before Williams tells Barcelona his final decision. A definitive communication from Williams’ side is expected to arrive in the coming days. This is the reason why sporting director Deco decided not to join the rest of Barcelona’s board members who travelled to U.S. ahead of the team’s pre-season tour on Sunday.
The 46-year-old wants to remain in Spain to monitor any developments to the situation.
Leipzig are more open to Olmo leaving but only on terms the Bundesliga club feel are acceptable.
Is it likely Barca can sign those players?
At the time of writing, Barca cannot register Williams or Olmo in their La Liga squad for next season.
In previous summers, Laporta and his directors pulled a series of ‘levers’ that enabled them to make expensive signings despite the club’s debts of more than €1billion.
But now the board must deal with the consequences of that lever-pulling, especially the failed Barca Studios deal, before any further stars can be added. The collapse of that deal has left Barca with a €100million hole in their accounts for the 2023-24 season.
Laporta pulled levers in previous transfer windows so Barca could register players (Pedro Salado/Getty Images)
La Liga has said that Barca cannot register any players for 2024-25 without raising more money. Squad members from last season, including defender Inigo Martinez and forward Vitor Roque, cannot be selected for competitive games by Flick.
Is there a world in which they could afford them?
Barca’s best chance of signing Williams or Olmo, or even both, would be to resolve the Barca Studios problem — the plan hatched by Laporta in 2022 to sell a share in the club’s media activities and future media income to raise €100million, most of which never arrived.
Solving this would mean finding an investor for the zombified project. A new industry partner would need to pay at least €100m to make this happen and take over the shares previously apportioned to German fund Libero, crypto company Socios and Catalan entrepreneur Jaume Roures’ Orpheus Media firm.
These partners were hoping to benefit when a Barca Media spin-off was floated on New York’s NASDAQ stock exchange — but attempts to form a ‘SPAC’ (special purpose acquisition company), initially valued by Barca at €1billion, failed in late June. Attempts to find a new way of bringing the scheme back to life have yet to be successful.
Barca sources — who, like all those cited in this article, asked to remain anonymous to protect relationships — have insisted in recent weeks that they remain confident of being able to announce a company that can contribute the money owed by Libero, but nothing has happened since then and there is no indication a solution will be found soon.
Those sources were also given hope after an interview from La Liga president Javier Tebas with Catalan newspaper Sport this month. He said: “Barcelona are close to being able to afford a signing such as Nico Williams.
“They need to get back to the 1:1 scenario (the La Liga rule that means they can spend normally, using all extra revenues generated on new signings). They are still not there, but this is the time the club have been closest to this. If they manage to reach it, they could proceed to make a signing of Nico Williams’ calibre.
Williams and Olmo were two of Spain’s key players this summer (Marcio Machado/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images)
“Barca are getting there by reducing their wage bill and the club structure. With another financial move, they have big options to get to the 1:1 scenario and therefore act more freely in the transfer window.”
Barca also explored ‘leveraging’ their kit and merchandising activities to raise short-term money this summer.
That involved Laporta publicly attempting to get out of the club’s current deal with Nike, then, when that proved legally impossible, switching to looking to renegotiate the arrangement, which runs to 2028.
GO DEEPER
Barcelona and Nike’s breakdown in relations reveals deeper problems at Catalan club
In theory, Nike could agree to pay Barca an upfront ‘bonus’ as part of an extended deal, money that could fill holes in the club’s accounts to allow new players to be registered with La Liga.
Industry sources say this would involve the American company then taking a bigger share of revenues. In practice, this would be another ‘lever’ — similar to how Barca sold 25 per cent of their annual La Liga TV rights to American firm Sixth Street in 2021.
Would players have to be sold to sign them — and who could be on their way out?
Regardless of whether Laporta’s board do find a way to pull another ‘lever’ this summer, to bring in Williams or Olmo, they would still need to sell a senior player (or players) to balance the books and free up room within their salary budget.
Through the final months of last term, the most likely to leave looked to be €80million-rated defender Ronald Araujo.
Among the players who could raise big money on the market, the Uruguayan centre-back was seen as the politically easiest to ‘sacrifice’ by some on the board, especially after the emergence of 17-year-old defender Pau Cubarsi. Araujo himself could have earned a significant pay-rise by joining another top European club and Barca would have been spared from entering into negotiations over a new, lucrative deal with the defender.
Barca would also have liked to offload midfielder Frenkie De Jong, as they have for some time now, but the Dutch midfielder still has no intention of leaving. Both De Jong and Araujo are injured now anyway, meaning it is almost impossible for either to be sold this summer.
Araujo was injured during the Copa America with Uruguay (Candice Ward/Getty Images)
The situation means that Barca would consider offers for almost all first-team players, except for their academy-made jewels Yamal, Gavi, Cubarsi and Alejandro Balde, who are viewed as untouchable by the club’s ‘socios’ (members).
Barca are trying to move on unwanted players such as Ansu Fati and Clement Lenglet, but their hefty salaries make that difficult. Oriol Romeu has been looking for a way out, ideally back to Girona, after an unsuccessful season last year, but Barca have not received any suitable offers.
Mikayil Faye, a 20-year-old defender who starred last season for Barcelona Atletic (the club’s reserve team full of youth players), has been monitored by European teams, but none have met Barca’s €20million valuation. Faye is still on the market and any money raised would represent a huge profit on the club’s books.
They could also be open to offers for other squad members including wide attackers Raphinha and Ferran Torres, especially if it meant Williams or Olmo could replace them.
Torres insisted during Euro 2024 that he had no intention to leave Barcelona in any circumstances this summer. Raphinha has also publicly said he wants to remain at the club for a third season. Andreas Christensen falls into that category, too.
Would these transfers make sense?
The most obvious explanation for all the press talk surrounding Williams or Olmo, which president Laporta has openly fed, is that it makes Barca look like they are still a big club capable of competing to sign key members of a Euros-winning team.
Arch-rivals Real Madrid are the reigning Champions League and La Liga title holders and have just added another ‘galactico’, Kylian Mbappe, and another emerging starlet, Endrick, to their ranks.
Barcelona executives also want to take the spotlight away from the Barca Studios fiasco and the straining relationship with Nike. Focusing on high-profile attacking players that excite fans is a happier talking point.
Williams ticks all the boxes for Barcelona. Sporting director Deco identified a left-winger as a much-needed reinforcement when he started his role last summer. He has scouted multiple players in that position and, despite other names being higher on his list earlier this summer — including Liverpool’s Luis Diaz — Williams’ displays at the Euros, his age and his relationship with Barcelona players have given him an edge.
Williams and Yamal are good friends from the Spain setup (Borja B Hojas/Getty Images)
Sources close to Laporta say he has been hugely impressed by Williams and sees in him a potential household name for Barcelona’s future project. Apart from everything he would add on the pitch, having Yamal and Williams in the same team would be one of the best ways of combatting the brand impact of Mbappe at Madrid.
GO DEEPER
Lamine Yamal, Nico Williams: Spain’s Euro 2024 stars a ‘blessing’ in battle against racism
Olmo’s case is slightly different. As much as he proved his quality at the Euros, Barcelona have options in his role. Pedri, Ilkay Gundogan and even Fermin Lopez operate in similar areas. Olmo would be a great addition to any squad but Barcelona’s squad is already unbalanced.
Another possibility is that Barca end up selling first-team players this summer, but the funds raised are required to fill holes in their accounts so they can register existing squad members with La Liga, rather than adding big-name attackers such as Olmo or Williams.
Then, closer to the deadline, different players could arrive, perhaps on loan, even if they are not at the top of the coaching staff’s shortlist.
That happened late last August, when forward Joao Felix and full-back Joao Cancelo were signed on loan, despite then-coach Xavi wanting any available funds to be spent on a top holding midfielder. That position has still not been adequately filled.
(Top photo: Getty Images)
