Six Barcelona players not given La Liga shirt numbers

James Shearman

Updated: 7 Aug 2022 11:36 BST
3 min read

Memphis Depay, Barcelona, 2021/22 — © ProShots

Barcelona have not given shirt numbers to six first-team players ahead of the 2022-23 season.

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Neto, Samuel Umtiti, Oscar Mingueza, Miralem Pjanic, Martin Brathwaite and Memphis Depay have all gone without.

This indicates that Barcelona are looking to sell these players in an attempt to balance the books.

Indeed, the Catalan club have only given shirt numbers to 13 players, as their five new signings are yet to be assigned numbers too.

The six existing players to miss out, as well as the five summer signings and two contract extensions (Sergi Roberto and Ousmane Dembele), take the total to 13 players on the books without a number on the club's official website.

Barcelona's registration issues

Barcelona have spent €150 million this summer on Robert Lewandowski, Jules Kounde, Raphinha, Franck Kessie and Andreas Christensen, while they are also targeting Chelsea wing-back Marcos Alonso.

But the new signings are not allowed to be registered to play until the club's wage bill is lowered.

Barcelona have been holding regular meetings with La Liga over the summer and have been told they do not meet the requirements to register their signings, or the renewed contracts of Dembele and Roberto.

La Blaugrana have been raising funds by selling off parts of their company as well as future TV revenue.

And the fourth of the Catalan club's fundraisers would be the money received from the sale of 24.5% of Barca Studios.

🔥 𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐂𝐇 𝐃𝐀𝐘 🔥 pic.twitter.com/wYN8mdLemP
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) August 7, 2022

La Liga have also told Barcelona that they must sell a number of players to lower their wage bill, with the big earners such as Frenkie de Jong and Depay being linked with moves away.

Yet, president Joan Laporta believes the club are operating well within the regulations given the funds that have been raised.

Speaking at the unveiling of €50m signing Robert Lewandowski, hesaid: "In the last two months we have carried out operations for which €860 million has been entered. We finished the year with a profit, we are healthy and the balance is positive.

''Own funds are also positive. Decisions have been made responsibly and we’ve complied with the requirements, so the work done will allow us to have a great workforce.''

While Barcelona have until the end of the month to register their players, it is believed they will activate the fourth lever imminently, with their La Liga campaign set to kick-off on August 13th.