Barcelona unable to register €45m wonderkid after La Liga SLASHES salary cap

Suraj Radia

14 Sept 2023 14:50 BST
3 min read

Joan Laporta, Barcelona, crisis — © ProShots

Barcelona’s financial issues are set to continue after La Liga slashed the Catalan side’s salary cap by more than half, leaving the future uncertain for wonderkid Vitor Roque, who was set to join in January.

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La Liga have been scrutinising Barcelona’s finances in recent times, with the league champions struggling to register key players and being forced into activating a number of ‘economic levers’ and creative strategies to make signings.

Barca moved on a host of players on high salaries this summer, with the likes of Sergio Busquets, Ousmane Dembele and Franck Kessie all leaving, but despite the substantial decrease, La Liga are still demanding further cuts.

ISSUES: Barca and Joan Laporta face €20m financial 'calamity'

However, having been given a cap of €648.8 million in Februrary, Relevo states that Barca now have been told they need to drop their salary to €270m – a drop of more than 58%.

La Liga claim that the figures must be altered due to a €60m lever not being submitted before their deadline, marking an instant loss of that figure to their salary, while further documented investment also did not arrive.

The salary of loan signing of Joao Felix on deadline day is also considered incorrect, according to La Liga, with it set to appear as €4m on Barca’s books despite the club only paying the Portuguese international €400,000.

Roque unable to be registered until Barca meet La Liga conditions

The dramatic cut to the wage budget means that Barca cannot proceed with bringing in Roque as it stands, despite the 18-year-old having agreed to arrive from Flamengo in January for a fee of €45m.

Barca will now have to sell a player in order to register Roque or resort to new sources of revenue, such as sponsorship or sale of further club assets.

Despite seeing 12 players leave from last season, which freed up a reported €212m, Barca will be forced into further cuts, having also added five players in the summer.

ANOTHER ONE: Barcelona activate levers to force through deadline day arrivals

Oriol Romeu from Girona arrived for €3.4m, Felix and Joao Cancelo came in on loan and Ilkay Gundogan joined after his contract expired at Manchester City, while Inigo Martinez, a free transfer from Athletic Bilbao, was registered just eight minutes before the transfer deadline despite being the club’s first signing of the summer.