La Liga chief rules out Haaland and Mbappe Barcelona move

Robin Bairner

• 2 Feb 2023 09:14 GMT
• 3 min read

Barcelona have received an embarrassing blow to their hopes of signing superstar players like Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe, with La Liga president Javier Tebas indicating that only Real Madrid can afford stars of such calibre.

Mbappe famously turned down the chance to move to Real Madrid when he was a free agent in the summer, instead opting to sign a new contract with PSG, while Haaland completed a transfer to Manchester City, who bought out his release clause at Borussia Dortmund. Again, he was a player Los Blancos wanted.

Barcelona, meanwhile, are struggling with the club’s crippling financial situation and had to fight a legal battle to have Gavi registered as a first-team player.

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Tebas has rubbed salt into the Catalans’ wounds by indicating that there is no immediate resolution to their problems looming that can make them a genuine contender to sign football’s biggest stars.

The controversial La Liga president was quoted by El Chiriguito as saying: “If Haaland and Mbappe ever came to Spain, only Real Madrid will be able to sign them.”

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Barcelona’s uncertain financial outlook

This simply underlines the fact that unless there is a dramatic financial change at Camp Nou, Barcelona are years away from being able to sign such players.

Last summer, for instance, they funded an ambitious transfer window by selling off long-term assets, such as television rights – a move that aided them in the short term but leaves them facing an uncertain future.

Even Real Madrid are not in a particularly healthy financial spot, but it is expected they will emerge from their problems more rapidly thanks to their redevelopment of the Santiago Bernabeu.

Meanwhile, there is still legitimate hope that they might sign a world star in the form of Jude Bellingham from Dortmund this summer, while rumours of interest in Mbappe continue to circulate.