Free agent Dani Olmo: What next for Barcelona as Arsenal, Man Utd circle?

Tom Weber

• 1 Jan 2025 05:30 CST
• 4 min read

Dani Olmo's registration with LaLiga has officially expired, meaning that he is now free to terminate his Barcelona contract.

The Blaugrana's worst fears have become reality. Despite optimism in recent days, Barcelona have not been able to convince LaLiga that they have the requisite funds available to extend the temporary registration of marquee summer signing Dani Olmo.

The club had hoped that selling off their VIP seats of the new Camp Nou to investors in Qatar and Dubai would enable them to secure the eligibility of Olmo prior to the December 31 deadline, but LaLiga announced on Tuesday that the Catalans had failed to achieve this.

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"LALIGA informs that, as of today, December 31, FC Barcelona have not presented an alternative that, in compliance with LALIGA's economic control regulations, would allow it to register any player from next January 2," a statement read.

With the deadline having passed, Olmo and teammate Pau Victor are now officially unregistered, which is a major issue as this means that their playing licenses have also expired. LaLiga players are only allowed to have one license per season.

Olmo to terminate his contract?

Due to a clause in his contract inserted for precisely this scenario, Olmo is now able to terminate his contract with Barcelona and sign for another club on a free transfer.

If he were to go down this route, Barcelona would nevertheless have to continue to pay him until 2030, while they would also have to immediately pay RB Leipzig the entirety of the agreed transfer fee, reported at €55 million (up to €62m with bonuses), while president Joan Laporta has claimed it amounts to €47m.

This would, of course, have dire consequences for Barcelona's present financial situation. So far, however, Olmo has given no indication that he is willing to take this measure. His agent confirmed the player's commitment to the club on Tuesday.

Still, this is a worrying situation for Barcelona. The Athletic previously claimed that Olmo could feel compelled to leave if he indeed were unable to play for the rest of the season.

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Barcelona have appealed to the Spanish federation to resolve the situation, but the governing body can not hand out licenses without the approval of LaLiga, which does not seem to be forthcoming.

However, according to Mundo Deportivo, Barcelona retain hopes that they will be able to get all the paperwork for their VIP seats deal sorted and ratified by January 3.

They will then plead that 'force majeure' caused the delay, which would allow LaLiga to make an exception for the club. However, whether the league will grant this is entirely up in the air at present.

Amid all of this, there have been reports that European giants are circling. The likes of Arsenal, Man City and Man Utd are all said to be keeping close tabs on the situation, while it has even been claimed that the Gunners have already made an initial approach for Olmo.

It is clear that we haven't heard the last of this mess.