Barcelona have reached a ‘an agreement in principle’ with Real Sociedad for striker Willian José and will pay €35m for his signature.
The Catalan giants are on the hunt for a new striker having lost Luis Suárez for the majority of the rest of the season with a knee injury.
They failed to sign a replacement last month but, as a result of an injury, Ousmane Dembélé may be allowed to sign an emergency player this month.
Spanish law dictates clubs can sign an ‘emergency’ player with the FA’s permission if a player is injured for five months or more, although the signing has be either a free transfer or from inside Spain.
They have been linked to several signings, but earlier today we covered a report that Sociedad’s José was their number one target.
They have now advanced from that, with RTVE 1 in Spain saying that Barcelona have a ‘an agreement in principle’ with La Real over a permanent deal.
This has been backed up by the founder of Spanish newspaper Sport, Jose Luis Carazo, who says a deal will be done at €35m, half of José’s release clause
Willian José será el 9 del Barça por 35 millones de euros
— José Luis Carazo (@joseluiscarazo) February 11, 2020
The move is not yet official, as Barcelona are awaiting permission from the RFEF to make the signing according to Sport.
According to Sport, the RFEF will only permit them to sign an emergency player when Dembélé has officially been ruled out for at least five months.
However, that seems likely to happen sooner rather than later, with Barça announcing this afternoon that the forward has been ruled out for six months with a hamstring injury.
That is more than the five months required for them to be granted permission for their emergency signing, who appears to be Willian José.
