Barcelona will finalise a move for Manchester City defender Eric Garcia this month, with them believing the ‘time has come’ for the deal to be done.
That’s according to Sport, who say the player’s long-gestating return to the Nou Camp is set to be finalised by new president Joan Laporta.
Garcia has been heavily linked with a move back to Spain since last summer when Manchester City and Barcelona were locked in negotiations over a potential move.
That never happened, despite the player making it clear he wanted the transfer, and efforts to revive a deal in January also fell by the wayside.
Garcia has made it clear he wants the return, though, refusing to sign a new deal at the Etihad, his current one expires this summer, to ensure he can return to the club he left as a youngster in 2017.
That decision has been left firmly in Barcelona’s hands, but they now want to push ahead and make the centre back their first signing of the summer.
Sport explain that Garcia is ‘one of the issues’ on the table, but with negotiations at a ‘very advanced’ stage, then the club plan to finalise things sooner rather than later.
Laporta already has the details of his potential contract at the Nou Camp and considers the player a ‘great market opportunity’ given the deal they have negotiated.
Furthermore, it’s felt that Garcia’s ‘clear commitment’ to playing for Barcelona, which has seen him reject other offers to leave Manchester City and wait ‘patiently’ for the Catalans, is an ‘asset’ to the club.
Indeed, it has seen Laporta reject proposals from ‘very interesting central defenders’ in favour of signing Garcia.
Laporta is set to meet with the ‘technical summits’ and ‘sports area’ at the club next week, where they will talk about various things at the club that need them.
The plan for Laporta is to study these issues with his new sports team, which will include Mateu Alemany and potentially Jordi Cruyff but knowing they are getting closer to April, they intend to close the deal for Garcia ‘once and for all’.
