Barcelona left-back Jordi Alba has completed the terms of his pay cut at Camp Nou, after co-defender Gerard Pique.
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In order to register Memphis Depay, Eric Garcia and Rey Manaj in time for the new season, Pique agreed to a significant pay cut to give Barcelona the necessary financial leeway and the midfielder emphasized that other team leaders would follow suit.
Pique was the first to agree / Soccrates Images / Getty Images
Alba publicly insisted that he was more than happy to help agree to a pay cut, but noted that Pique agreed to his contract first and Barcelona only needed a deal to get the aforementioned trio registered in time.
A few weeks later and Alba has completed his contract. Although nothing has been confirmed by the club yet, ESPN notes that the terms of the left – back’s pay cut have now been formally agreed and should free up enough space to register Sergio Aguero, who remains on the sidelines while recovering from an injury.
It is proposed that Alba has agreed to give up 25% of his salary and has also agreed to postpone another significant part of his salary in an attempt to help Barcelona stay afloat in the midst of growing debt problems.
With the Alba deal now done, Barcelona will turn their attention to strikingly similar arrangements with other veterans such as Sergio Busquets and Sergi Roberto, both of whom are expected to be willing to help.
To try to keep the cuts going, Barcelona hope to be able to download both Miralem Pjanic and Samuel Umtiti. The former has aroused great interest from Italy and will probably leave the club on loan, but the latter situation is still incredibly complicated.
Umtiti continues to reject the chance to leave the club permanently and has therefore been warned that he could be “fired” if he remains in the books at the end of the transfer window.
Barcelona tries to move Umtiti / Quality Sport Images / Getty Images
Although all these cuts will help Barcelona register their new signings, they would not have been enough to keep Lionel Messi, who gave Blaugrana as much time as possible to find a solution before concluding a deal with Paris Saint-Germain.
Spanish law stipulates that not all workers can sign a new contract worth more than 50% less than their previous deal – a rule designed to prevent money laundering and other financial offenses – so neither Messi nor any of the other Barcelona players can easily agree to play for free.
