One of the items marked in red on Barça’s agenda is the renewal of Lamine Yamal, but it may be complicated. As is well known, the club has a serious problem of a financial nature that could compromise the future of its greatest asset. The situation of Dani Olmo, together with doubts about the club’s ability to generate income from the sale of VIP boxes, puts the club at risk, as it sees the salary margin needed to be able to carry out the renewal of the young player crumbling away. There is a ‘verbal agreement’ to extend until 2030 when he turns 18, but the lack of financial guarantees could be the reason for the stalling of the player’s renewal.
“Barça is coming out of a complicated historical situation. During Covid, they had a squad at the limit of their salary capacity, and they lost about 200 million euros in revenue. That, added to the same players and salaries, led them to lose a significant amount of money during the Covid era. Then there were the decisions of Joan Laporta and Ferran Reverter’s first board of directors, who decided to make provisions for many things and put all the blame on their friend Bartomeu. They put 500 million euros into provisions, of which 200 million were highly questionable,” Javier Tebas recently explained.
Lamine Yamal is essential to Barça
When Lamine Yamal is not there, Barça do not know what it is to win the league. Specifically, without Lamine, FC Barcelona’s record is one point out of a possible nine, with defeats against Real Sociedad (1-0) and Atlético (1-2), as well as a draw with RC Celta (2-2). What’s more, even if they do get playing time, if they are not in the starting line-up, Hansi Flick’s team also have a tough time in the domestic competition. They lost 4-2 in Pamplona against Osasuna and 2-1 against Las Palmas in Montjuïc.
The king of assists
Last Saturday in the league, Lamine Yamal provided several assists to Raphinha, but the prize would come with a sweet pass he sent to Dani Olmo. He fell to the ground on the counter-attack, got up straight away, received the ball, cut inside and linked up with Olmo with a lethal pass, after which the Catalan broke away from his marker with a good cut inside, finishing with a left-footed shot that crashed into the crossbar and into the opposition goal. Saturday’s goal was Yamal’s 15th assist of the season in 33 games in all competitions and, in LaLiga, the winger has already provided 13 assists this season. Despite these numbers, Lamine has yet to score in the league. He hasn’t done so since last October’s clásico. It’s about time.
Several big teams are following him
Lamine Yamal’s good performances both for his team and for the Spanish national team in the European Championship have aroused the interest of several of Europe’s big teams. Paris Saint-Germain are closely following the progress of the young winger’s future. He is not the only team, Barça’s young winger is also stirring up passions in the Premier League. The two clubs from Manchester and Liverpool, in particular, have been the ones putting in the strongest bids lately.
They report several calls from Real Madrid to sign him
Another of the teams interested would be Real Madrid. Mundo Deportivo has confirmed that the white club has been paying close attention to the situation of the Spanish international. “Real Madrid is repeatedly asking his agent, Jorge Mendes, about the situation of Lamine Yamal at FC Barcelona. However, the Portuguese representative tells the merengues to forget about it. There is no option,” said journalist Ferrán Martínez.