There are indications that Lyon forward, Memphis Depay will end up signing for Barcelona.
Italian journalist, Fabrizio Romano has claimed that the Netherland international is closed to a move to Camp Nou. The Spanish giant is interested in signing him. According to the Sky Sports journalist, the final fee will be around €30m with add ons.
“The first official bid will be accepted by OL in the next few hours. Personal terms already agreed days ago [contract until June 2024]. “
He further stated that Barcelona will have to sell players like Luis Suarez, who is reported to have agreed with Juventus, Rafinha, and more.
“La Liga rules are so clear: if you don’t sell players, you can not buy any new one. That’s why is stalling now.
“Manchester United have never been interested in matching the bid. Ronald Koeman directly spoke with Memphis last week. “
He further revealed that Barca’s long term target, Lautaro Martinez won’t be leaving Inter to the club, adding that he will get a contract extension instead.
“Lautaro Martinez talks are over. He’s going to stay at Inter and he’ll receive a proposal to extend his contract until June 2025.”
Having spoken with Depay, Barca’s coach, Ronald Koeman is also interested in his dutch teammate, Giorgio Wijnaldum.
It was reported that if the dutch midfielder leaves the Anfield club, they will go for Thiago Alcanttara of Bayern Munich, who has ten months left on his current deal with the club.
“Wijnaldum is Koeman’s first choice as a midfielder but complicated deal with Liverpool. Klopp will try to keep him [new contract offered months ago – it’s up to the player]. Thiago Alcantara is more likely to join Premier League than coming back “to Barça,” Romano added.
Lyon President speaks about the Barcelona link on Memphis Depay
Although Koeman has said he expects to begin the Bundesliga season with no new signing yet, but Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas has claimed that Barca cannot afford to buy Depay because of the hit their finances have taken during the COVID-19 crisis.
So, the deal now looks to be off. This is because Aulas declared that Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu personally told him the Catalan giants were in no position to make an offer.
Aulas wrote on Twitter: “The president of Barca indicated to me on Sunday that Barca was suffering a lot from the COVID crisis and didn’t have the possibility to make an offer. #memphis”
Memphis kost Barcelona 30 miljoen euro | Voetbal | https://t.co/ENn92q9lkf @ol @Le_Progres Le président du Barça m’a indiqué dès dimanche que le Barça souffrait beaucoup d la crise du Covid et n’avait pas de possibilité de faire une offre.#memphis https://t.co/R1eGdE276j
— Jean-Michel AULAS (@JM_Aulas) September 15, 2020
It could be recalled that Bartomeu said the Catalan club faced losing around 30 percent of its budgeted income because of the coronavirus pandemic. The figure is likely to be close to 300 million euros.
Depay, since his move to the Ligue 1 club from Manchester United has scored 46 goals in 103 Ligue 1 games for Lyon.
