A report from Spain has claimed that Barcelona will offer Argentine winger Angel Di Maria a yearly salary of €2 million if he joins the club.
Di Maria, 34, left Paris Saint-Germain at the end of the season after seven trophy-laden years. Before his adventure in Ligue 1, he had spent a forgettable year in England with Manchester United and four trophy-laden years with Real Madrid.
Ahead of the World Cup, the former Benfica man is seeking a one-year contract with a top club that will guarantee him games to help him stay sharp for the Mundial in Qatar come November/December. He had been in talks with Juventus over a move but paused them to listen when Barcelona came calling.
The Catalan club are locked in contract negotiations with French winger Ousmane Dembele who, according to reports, is closer to leaving the club than he is to renewing his contract and extending his stay. Di Maria emerged as an option for the club who are also in a financial mess and could benefit from taking Dembele off their books.
However, if the Argentine, who risks the ire of Real Madrid fans, joins the club, he is going to take a massive pay cut from his €13 million-per-annum salary which he earned at PSG to earn only €2 million-per-annum.
Spanish outlet Cuatro reports that the Argentine is keen on moving to Barcelona which is why he paused negotiations with Juventus to listen to their offer. This will see him become the first to fall into club president Joan Laporta’s new €10 million-per-annum wage cap for players of the club which he intends to impose starting next season.
It is not yet known if he will accept the club’s offer or if he will continue his talks with Juventus, who are already planning a move on their second choice following Di Maria’s distraction with Barcelona.
LaLiga offers succour to Barcelona from financial troubles
Meanwhile, LaLiga has offered to help the Blaugrana with their financial issues, but on one condition.
The Catalan club are finding it tough to scrape funds together for all their summer business, including Di Maria’s which is possibly the cheapest deal they would complete in the summer.
The club has a negative salary margin as things stand and have tried – and failed – to resolve the problems with the sale of a percentage of Barça Studios and Barça Licensing and Merchandise (BLM).
They also recently chose not to go ahead with a deal with fund managers CVC Capital and it has now been revealed that the club refused the deal because of a condition given to them by LaLiga.
The deal would have seen a cash injection of over €200 million into the club and LaLiga president Javier Tebas would have sorted out their salary cap issues, but on the condition that they gave up their Super League ambitions.
Tebas has been critical of the project from its inception as is leveraging Barcelona’s situation to get them to distance themselves from the project.
Laporta has already ended the CVC deal discussions but with their salary cap presenting issues which look insurmountable, the next few months could be interesting to witness.
