Barcelona’s interest in Manchester City’s Eric García has been well documented in the Spanish media for several months.
Sport have a report on the 20-year-old, with a title ‘Eric García, one step away from signing for Barça’.
The defender’s contract expires at the end of this season and failure from City to offload him will allow him join another club on a free transfer in the summer.
It’s claimed the Spain international ‘gave his OK’ to the Catalan club at the start of this month and a contract has already been drafted.
There’s confidence at Camp Nou the centre-back will be a Barca player, but it’s not clear whether he will join them in the winter market or next summer.
This depends on two conditions. The first one is to find a ‘favourable agreement’ with Pep Guardiola’s side and then getting approval from Barcelona’s new management.
There’s already an agreement between the player and the Blaugrana for a five-year contract and the deal will be extended further if he joins them this month. As per Barca sources, the contract has been reviewed in recent days to ‘polish the last fringes’.
Sport explain García made an effort in returning to his former club and has rejected a better economic offer from City to renew his contract.
This week, Ronald Koeman’s side looked at the option of finding an agreement with the Etihad club. Manchester City, who went weeks without responding, told García’s entourage they will now accept his departure for a ‘low transfer fee’.
Should Barca be able to take the Spaniard this month, their idea is to pay the transfer fee from July 1st, which would be around €6m. City are asking for additional fee in variables or a percentage from a future sale, which Barcelona don’t seem to favour.
The two clubs will try to reach an agreement in the coming days, and if and when it’s closed, the Spanish club’s Management Board will then have to act.
Later this month, Barca will conduct an election to decide their next president. If the election takes place before the window closes, the club’s new management will decide whether or not García will arrive this month.
If the elections are conducted after the winter window closes, then Carles Tusquets will try to get the support from the presidential candidates to carry out the signing.
Sport state ‘all this mess should be resolved, for better or worse, in the next 10 days’.
