The case of Dani Olmo
FC Barcelona is facing financial disaster
01/01/2025 – 6:04 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
Barcelona’s royal transfer is officially without a club after just six months. The Catalans are trying to prevent the worst.
While other clubs try to strengthen their team in the winter transfer window, FC Barcelona is struggling to keep a key player who actually has a contract until 2030. European champion Dani Olmo signed this in the summer when he moved from Leipzig to the Catalans for 55 million euros.
Shortly after the change, the creative offensive player had to be patient; he watched three games in the stands. The reason: FC Barcelona has not yet been able to register Olmo with the league association. An issue that the “Blaugrana” regularly struggle with. The Spanish La Liga wants to prevent clubs from having far more expenses than income. Therefore, registration only takes place after a thorough check and, if necessary, after fulfilling requirements. It took weeks for Barcelona before Olmo was finally allowed to play.
The Catalans also took advantage of Andreas Christensen’s long injury. The Danish central defender was missing from Barcelona for months, which is why the club was able to deduct his salary. Christensen is now fit and Barcelona needed a new registration for Olmos. However, the league refused this (you can read more about this here).
That’s why the 26-year-old is officially without a club and could move on for free. However, his agent Andy Bara told Italian transfer expert Fabrizio Romano that Olmo wanted to stay at Barcelona. “We are not considering any other option,” emphasized Bara.
The Spanish top club now urgently needs to generate income in order to be able to register Olmo by the end of the winter transfer period at the beginning of February. The transfer fee to Leipzig (55 million euros) must be paid in any case and some installments are still outstanding. In addition, there is also Olmo’s salary, which he will receive in any case until 2030. According to the Spanish newspaper “Sport”, we are talking about a total of 48 million euros.
However, if the European champion cannot be registered, Barça would not be able to demand a transfer fee for him. Given his market value – according to “transfermarkt.de” this is 60 million euros – that would be all the more painful. Overall, that would be a loss in the three-digit million range.
To prevent this, Barcelona is trying to raise money urgently. The interest in players for sale seems to be manageable so far, which is why the club’s management around President Joan Laporta wants to go in different directions.
Media reported that Barcelona is trying to raise 100 million euros by selling VIP boxes in the modernized Camp Nou stadium to an Arab investment fund. According to the newspaper “Sport”, these boxes are actually worth twice as much. Regardless of the outcome of the Olmo case, Barcelona are threatened with significant losses.
If the league were to wave through registration after selling the boxes, Barcelona would have averted the catastrophe, but the club would still have suffered a major dent in its already damaged image. But if the deal falls through or the sale is not enough and the registration fails, the financial disaster would be perfect. And given a loss of more than a billion euros, the situation would drastically worsen.