Barcelona to announce Kessie and Christensen free transfers

FT Desk

• Updated: 29 Jun 2022 09:51 CDT
• 3 min read

Barcelona are set to announce the belated free transfers of Franck Kessie and Andreas Christensen this weekend.

Kessie and Christensen are out of contract with AC Milan and Chelsea respectively as of this Friday, and personal terms have been agreed with the pair for a number of months now.

However, Barcelona's well publicised financial dire straits meant that they were previously unable to register their transfers.

But the Catalan giants are set to raise up to €600 million after shareholders agreed to the partial sales of merchandising and TV rights - financial levers which will make the deals for Kessie and Christensen possible.

Barca will kick off their pre-season schedule on 4 July, and Spanish sports daily Mundo Deportivo report that the Ivorian midfielder and Danish defender will be among their number.

"Barca's intention is to be able to imminently announce the signings of the two players who will arrive free, Andreas and Franck Kessié," they write. "In fact, as MD learned, the plan is to make their transfers official over the weekend."

What roles will Kessie and Christensen play?

Kessie is a battling box-to-box midfielder who started 25 games as AC Milan won Serie A for the first time in 11 years last season.

He averaged 17 pressures per game in 2021/22 but was also in the 86th percentile for touches in the opposition penalty area.

He would likely line-up where Frenkie de Jong currently does in Xavi's preferred 4-3-3, with Sergio Busquets anchoring the midfield and Gavi for company on the other side.

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Christensen is a centre-back who played on the right of Chelsea's back three last season, but he is also accustomed to playing in a central-defensive partnership - something he often does with Denmark.

He averaged three interceptions per 90 minutes last season as well as completing 92 per cewnt of his passes out from the back. Christensen is likely to be paired with Ronald Araujo at the heart of Xavi's defence, with question marks over Gerard Pique's future.