Barcelona launch plan for Umtiti summer transfer
Robin Bairner
- 16 Mar 2022 12:52 GMT
- 3 min read
Samuel Umtiti may just have signed a new contract with Barcelona, but that has not stopped the club considering ways in which they might be able to transfer him during the summer.
Umtiti has been a source of frustration for Barca for several years. After winning the World Cup as a starter with France, his form and physical condition have deteriorated in recent times to such an extent that he has become a peripheral figure at Camp Nou.
Complicating matters has been the lavish contract that Barcelona handed him after two fine seasons with the club. It expired in 2023 and, as Umtiti’s form deserted him, has been one of the reasons he has been eager to stay put – no other team would pay him such wages.
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Barcelona partially solved the issue by giving him a new deal until 2026, which offered the player more long-term certainty in a trade off for a smaller salary. This allowed Barca greater freedom in the January transfer window to sign players as it freed up space in their wage budget.
For Barca, though, this was only a short-term measure to allow these deals to get over the line. Head coach Xavi still does not count on Umtiti and the idea from the club’s perspective is to offload him in the summer.
Where could Umtiti be transferred to?
According to Mundo Deportivo, Barcelona have opened talks with Lyon to allow him to go back to the club at which he played his academy football and which Umtiti openly admits is the only of his heart.
Indeed, Barcelona held talks with Lyon over a possible transfer in 2020 and these are set to reopen.
From the French side’s perspective, though, Umtiti would come with large salary demands by their standards, and it is reported that the club has doubts over his physical condition. It is not so much the broken toe that he is presently missing with, but the constant muscle issues that have kept him out in recent seasons.
Barcelona’s Umtiti problem, then, may not be simply resolved.
