Why Barcelona have not registered Jules Kounde
Barcelona have had a busy transfer window, signing five players, seeing a few leave and extending the contracts of two more, significantly bolstering their squad, and they’ve managed to register all but one of their new players.
Over the summer, the Blaugrana completed deals for Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha, Jules Kounde, Franck Kessie and Andreas Christensen, while also extending the contracts of Ousmane Dembele and Sergi Roberto.
The club raised money through the activation of economic levers – which is a sale of a portion of the club’s assets – and they’ve made enough to make some big transfers, being the second-highest spenders of the transfer window.
Over the last few weeks, they were facing issues in registering players for the new La Liga season, as their financial situation wasn’t right and La Liga didn’t permit new players from being registered due to it.
Kounde yet to be registered
Now, though, due to the activation of their four levers, Barcelona are no longer going over the squad limit, and they were free to register new players and renewals.
Yesterday, by activating the fourth lever of the summer – which raised €100 million – they managed to register Lewandowski, Dembele, Raphinha, Roberto, Kessie and Christensen.
One player missed out on registration, and Barcelona are going to delay his registration by a week – that’s defender Kounde, who they signed from Sevilla at the end of last month.
🚨🚨✅| Jules Koundé will be officially registered next week.@Alfremartinezz [🎖️]
— Managing Barça (@ManagingBarca) August 12, 2022
That’s because he’s still not match fit, and since he can’t play a game, Barcelona felt no urgency to register him ahead of this weekend’s opening La Liga fixture against Rayo Vallecano.
All La Liga teams must register players soon after the end of the transfer window, allowing clubs to sign more players until 31 August, and Barcelona are still eager to complete more signings, such as that of Chelsea’s Marcos Alonso.
Barcelona still have to free up some more money before registering Kounde, and there’s a belief that some wage reductions within the squad will help them achieve that – Gerard Pique has already agreed to help out.