Speculation surrounding the signing of a left winger by FC Barcelona has once again become a hot topic after Nico Williams’ resounding “no” to the offer, preferring to renew with Athletic Bilbao due to the lack of guarantees of registration from the Catalan club. Marcus Rashford has always been at the forefront of the search for a new striker, stating repeatedly that he wants to play for Barcelona and is even willing to take a pay cut. However, the appearance of a former Real Madrid player on the horizon could complicate his move to Barça.
Rashford wants to wear the Barça shirt
In recent months, Rashford has repeatedly expressed his desire to join FC Barcelona. Just a few days ago, while getting ready in Marbella, he spoke in an interview about his desire to play alongside Lamine Yamal. “Lamine is playing at the top level at 17 years old. I don’t think we’ve seen this before,” said the player.
“It’s hard to put into words what he’s doing, because he shouldn’t be doing it at 16 or 18. I don’t think we’ve seen this before. What he’s doing isn’t normal, because he’s going to get even better, so we won’t know what to say about him in three years’ time. The mentality he has to make it look natural is another of his skills,” he continued.
Manchester opens the door and facilitates his departure
The English player has never really convinced Deco, but the truth is that of all the names that have been mentioned, signing him would be the easiest given the situation at Barcelona. On the one hand, as we have said, the player wants to play for Barcelona and would not mind taking a pay cut. On the other hand, Manchester United does not count on him and has opened the door for him to leave.
The English club has decided to leave him out of the preseason and give him time to find a way out. In addition, the club has taken away Rashford’s number 10 jersey, which has already been assigned to Brazilian Matheus Cunha. The forward played the second half of last season on loan at Aston Villa, where he alternated good performances with physical problems.
The willingness of both the player to join Barcelona and Manchester United to let him go means that negotiations for the player are likely to be straightforward and a good financial option for the Catalan club. There was talk of a transfer fee of around €40 million, a more affordable figure for the Barcelona coffers, but in recent days there has been talk of the possibility of the English club agreeing to a loan deal in order to offload the player and save on his salary.
Mourinho enters the scene
With Rashford gaining ground to move to Barcelona, a new team has entered the scene. Sources in Turkey suggest that the English striker has received interest from Mourinho’s Fenerbahçe, who are keen to sign him. The media outlet ‘fotoMac’ reports that Mourinho’s team is working to sign the English player.
They report that the Turkish team’s sporting director, Devin Özek, will travel to England this weekend to meet with the club and the player, who has already given the green light, largely due to the intervention of the Portuguese coach, formerly of Real Madrid. According to the same media outlet, Mourinho called Rashford in recent days and the player is convinced that it would not be a bad idea to join the Istanbul-based team.