Barcelona meet Jordi Alba’s representatives

The 34-year-old full-back, who has made 456 first-team appearances for Barca since 2012, has made a serious and passive declaration of his desire to remain at Barca despite losing his starting position in favor of youngster Alejandro Balte.

Already last summer, Barça unsuccessfully tried to force his departure to Inter Milan, and the door was not closed at the club, but rather, they tried to pressure him again to find a way out.

This Wednesday, in fact, Barca club’s director of still football Matteo Alemany held a meeting with the player’s representatives at Ciudad Deportiva’s offices, in which he informed them of the club’s willingness to agree to terminate the contract. Barca will be willing to pay the full portion of the token for next season, until he reaches the total amount to be collected, and he can sign for another club.

In circumstances not too dissimilar to the transfer of Gerard Pique in the summer of 2022, the meeting was a first contact that revealed the plans the club has, rather than being concrete.

Alba is guaranteed a net income of $20 million, between his salary and the amount owed him by Barcelona after the pandemic, to be added to a bonus at the end of the contract provided by Josep Maria’s board of directors. While Bartomeu signed his last renewal in February 2019, it is difficult for him to approach such favorable conditions at another club.

This matter can be clarified by Xavi Hernández, who admitted a few dates ago that in the coming weeks he will begin his round of communications with the players to inform them of his plans for next season. The coach, without naming names, admitted that he would be clear with all those who did not enter his game plan, and he ventured that there would be the same talk of replacing Jordi Alba as he did with Piguet last year. Having played 27 of a possible 48 games and finished just eight games, the stock in the team has plummeted.