Barcelona give starlet Lucas Roman HUGE release clause

Stuart Telford

• 21 Jan 2023 15:38 GMT
• 3 min read

Barcelona have completed the signing of Lucas Roman from Ferro, and inserted a huge release clause in the Argentine youngster's contract.

Roman, an Argentina under-20 international, will play for Barca Atletic under Rafa Marquez initially, and the Blaugrana have only paid Ferrol €1.2 million for his services, but they have no intention of seeing him leave on the cheap at a later date.

"FC Barcelona and Club Ferro Carril Oeste have reached an agreement for the transfer of the Argentinian player, who signed a contract up to 30 June 2026, which includes a 400 million euro clause," Barca posted on their official website.

READ: Barcelona line up TWO summer transfers

It's a significant number for the 18-year-old, one designed to be prohibitively expensive for potential suitors.

Like many a young Argentine, and a left-footed, attacking one at that, Roman has been compared to Barca great Lionel Messi, most recently by his former club's president Daniel Pandolfi.

"Lucas Roman has a lot of similarities to Leo Messi," he said. "The Barca scouts saw that. Obviously he's not at Messi's level yet, but he has similar characteristics."

Roman had three goals and an assist in 27 outings with Ferrol in Argentina's Primera Division in 2022, and won the L'Alcúdia International Football Tournament with Javier Mascherano's Argentina under-20 side last year.

READ: Barcelona's banter era: 2017 until… today?

Barca stung with Neymar

Barcelona now put huge release clauses into their players' contracts as standard, having lost Neymar to PSG for a world record €222m in the summer of 2017.

The amount had been designed to ward off bids, but instead simply invited one from the Qatar-backed French capital club.

Roman's fellow Barca youngsters Pedri, Gavi and Ansu Fati all now have release clauses in their contracts of €1 billion.

Barca are reportedly willing to listen to bids for Ansu, however, as they look to balance their books through players sales following their group stage exit from this season's Champions League.