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Written by Martin Graham | June 9, 2022
A report from Spain stated that Barcelona would offer Argentine winger Angel Di Maria an annual salary of 2 million euros if he joined the club.
Di Maria, 34, left PSG at the end of the season after seven years of titles. Before venturing into the French league, he spent a forgotten year in England with Manchester United and four title-packed years with Real Madrid.
Ahead of the World Cup, the ex-Benfica player is seeking a one-year contract with a top club that will guarantee him matches that will help him stay afloat at the World Cup in Qatar in November/December. He had held talks with Juventus about the move but paused them to listen when Barcelona called.
The Catalan club is in contract negotiations with French winger Ousmane Dembele, who, according to reports, is closer to leaving the club than renewing his contract and extending his stay. Di Maria has emerged as an option for the club, which is also in a financial mess and could benefit from getting Dembele off their books.
However, if the Argentine, who risks angering Real Madrid fans, joins the club, he will take a massive cut in his salary from the €13m annual salary he earned at PSG to take in just €2m-a year.
Spanish port quattro The Argentine is reported to be keen on a move to Barcelona and has therefore halted negotiations with Juventus to hear their offer. This will become the first to enter into the new wage cap for club president Joan Laporta of 10 million euros a year for club players that he intends to impose starting next season.
It is not yet known if he will accept the club’s offer or if he will continue his talks with Juventus, who are already planning to move on their second option after Di Maria’s distraction with Barcelona.
LaLiga helps Barcelona from financial problems
Meanwhile, LaLiga offered to help the Blaugrana with their financial problems, but on one condition.
The Catalan club is finding it difficult to put money together for all of their summer business, including the Di Maria deal which is perhaps the cheapest deal they will complete in the summer.
The club has a negative salary margin as it does and has tried – and failed – to solve the problems of selling a percentage of its Barcelona and Barcelona Licensing and Merchandising (BLM) studios.
They also recently opted not to go ahead with a deal with fund managers CVC Capital and it has now been revealed that the club rejected the deal due to a clause being granted by LaLiga.
The deal would have seen a cash injection of more than €200m into the club and LaLiga president Javier Tebas would have solved their problems with the salary cap, but only on the condition that they gave up their Premier League ambitions.
Tebas has been critical of the project since its inception and is also taking advantage of Barcelona’s position to get them to distance themselves from the project.
Laporta has already concluded discussions of the CVC deal but with their salary cap brought forward for seemingly intractable problems, the next few months could be interesting.
