Trouble for Barcelona, Gundogan could leave for free without playing a single game

Barcelona are in a difficult situation. After having had a few weeks of calm in which it seemed that everything was going well, now the bad news keeps coming. First it was Ousmane Dembélé, who received an offer from Paris Saint-Germain and decided to leave the club in exchange for €50 million.

Then there was an unexpected setback in the negotiation to sell 16% of Barça Studios, the production company that brings together all the club's audiovisual offerings, such as the Barça TV channel, the Barça TV+ streaming platform and all the activity on social networks. Joan Laporta had intended to sell that percentage to a German investment group to obtain the money needed to balance the side's finances, but the negotiation got complicated.

This meant that Barcelona could not, until now, register the players who arrived this summer, as well as those who were already in the squad and renew their contracts now. If this situation continues until Sunday, Xavi will only be able to use 13 players for the match against Getafe. And they could be even fewer, since among them are Dembélé and Kessie, who in the coming days will leave.

And another who could follow the same path is Ilkay Gundogan. According to newspaper As, the midfielder has a clause in his contract that states that if Barcelona could not register him in La Liga by the time the season starts, the player has the option to leave as a free agent and negotiate with another club.

Problems for Xavi

This situation has the coach worried. Not only will he have difficulty assembling the team for the start of La Liga, but he could also lose one of his best players. Gundogan was Barcelona's first signing this summer and arrived at the club as a star.