Barca renewed a player's contract, and the result was unexpected by most people
Earlier, Barca's reporter broke the news: Barca is about to renew a player's contract, which will be officially announced soon. So Barca fans began to speculate about which player would be renewed, and the fans agreed that Demir was almost certain to leave the team, Neto would also leave the team, Dembele negotiations failed, it is likely that the team captain Roberto or center-back Araujo, Roberto is more likely. Just as all the fans were waiting for the news of Roberto's successful contract extension, Barca officially released the news of the renewal, which shocked all the fans, and Barca officially announced: with the team's center-back Umtiti to renew his contract until 2026.
Umtiti
The news simply surprised Barca fans, because before that, Umtiti was a player that Barca could not send away. Since the World Cup, Umtiti's situation at Barca has plummeted, he has been in frequent injuries, and his strength has dropped seriously, and after Lenglet came to the team, Umtiti's main position was also replaced. This season, Barca are subject to strict salary cap restrictions and urgently need to send players away, so Umtiti, who is not the main force and has a high salary, has become the first choice to leave the team, but Umtiti began to show loyalty to Barca, so he remained at Barca at the beginning of this season. In the first half of the season, Umtiti was not reused by Barca's two managers, and the media also exposed that Barca would send Umtiti at all costs, but as a result, they waited for the news of Umtiti's contract extension, which really shocked the fans.
Behind the seemingly absurd renewal is actually the clever operation of the Barca executives
Why did Barca's top brass suddenly change their minds and renew the "waste wood" centre-back, there are reasons for this. This season Barca have welcomed a new director Alemani, which is a very clever team director, and he is led by the renewal of Umtiti, in fact, this wave of operations is very clever, let's take a look:
Umtiti's contract was due to expire in the summer of 2023, and Umtiti's previous contract had another year and a half to expire, during which time a salary of 25 million euros would have to be paid, which was a huge expense. In this renewal, Barca is renewing the contract with Umtiti's salary cut until 2026, after the salary cut renewal, Umtiti's four-and-a-half-year new contract has a total salary of 30 million euros, with an average annual salary of more than 6 million euros, far lower than the current annual salary of more than 12 million euros. The salary equivalent to the renewal is the same as the salary that was previously paid for the normal performance of the one-and-a-half-year contract. After Umtiti's salary cut and renewal, he will be able to free up salary space to register for new signing Ferran Torres. Prior to this, Ferran Torres could not register for the Barca competition.
Ferran Torres
In addition to being able to ease wage pressure and make room for Phelan Torres to register, Umtiti's contract extension will help to send him away. Because before this, Umtiti is difficult to leave Barca on the one hand because he does not want to leave, frequently refuses offers from other teams, on the other hand, the reason is that few teams can bear the high salary level of Umtiti, this salary cut renewal will spread the remaining one and a half years of salary of Umtiti to the next four and a half years, the substantial salary cut makes Umtiti's salary level drop, but it makes it easier to find a home for Umtiti, and more teams will be able to bear Umtiti's salary. For the current Barca, this renewal is a good economic operation.
Barça executives
According to the reporters who followed the team, if the right offer is received, Umtiti is still likely to leave Barca in the near future. Therefore, behind the seemingly absurd renewal is actually a wave of clever economic operations at the top of Barca.