The Spanish club Barcelona has begun seriously considering signing a new midfielder during the upcoming winter Mercato, in order to support the formation of coach Xavi Hernandez.
Barcelona searched everywhere in the summer for a midfielder after the departure of Sergio Busquets to Inter Miami, where they studied the idea of including Joshua Kimmich from Bayern Munich, and Alex Baena, the Villarreal player, and ended up including the duo Oriol Romeu and Ilkay Gundogan.
The Spanish “Cadena Ser” website said that Javi’s injury to his cruciate ligament caused Barcelona to return to the market again to sign a midfielder, specifically Baena.
He explained that Xavi recommended to sporting director Deco and President Joan Laporta to sign the Villarreal player, because of his qualities that suit Barcelona’s style, his ability to pass in the final third of the field and actively participate in the offensive process.
The website indicated that Barcelona would be willing to pay 20 to 30 million euros to sign the Spanish international, but Villarreal may ask for much more than this amount, because the player is linked to a contract with the club until 2028 with a penalty clause of 60 million euros.
It is noteworthy that Baena made headlines in Spanish newspapers last season after he became the number one enemy of Real Madrid fans for provoking Federico Valverde, the team’s star, and mocking his son, which prompted Valverde to wait for him after the Villarreal-Real match in the Spanish League last April in order to physically assault him.
2023-12-05 20:56:18
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