Reports: Another French Player to ‘Join Barcelona in the Summer

According to Le Parisien, Paris Saint Germain star Adrien Rabiot will be the latest French player to join Barcelona albeit in the summer.  According to the outlet, a verbal deal has been agreed between both sides covering salary and bonus terms. The player has been marginalised by PSG for refusing to extend his current deal which expires on June 30 (2019). As the PSG first team squad train together, Rabiot trains alone counting down the days to the expiry of his deal.

Despite the centre of the Barcelona midfield already featuring talented individuals such as Busquets, Rakitic, De Jong and Arthur, the French player is prepared to strive for a starting place with Le Parisien adding that they anticipate Rakitic to make a Camp Nou exit during the summer months.  On December 30 (2018), Barça issued a statement acknowledging that talks had taken place between the player and club but refuted that any pre-arrangement had been concluded. In the subsequent time-frame Barcelona have filtered a number of messages implying that the Rabiot move was off but the latest revelations from Le Parisien suggest that the move is very much an ongoing concern.

Meanwhile, The future of Ivan Rakitic at Barcelona remains up in the air for the moment. However, neither the player nor the club are in a hurry over penning a contract renewal and will not address the issue until the end of the current campaign. The midfielder knows that the club will not renew his contract in the middle of the current season. Although the president promised an improvement on his current terms when Paris Saint-Germain came calling last summer, when he does renew, it does not appear that there will be an increase.

The team’s overall salary outlay doesn’t allow for an increase for the Croatian as he renewed in March 2017 for four years and the club consider that it is not the right time. His future will not be decided until June, although the midfielder is fully aware that if he was to enter the market then he would not be short of offers. Meanwhile, Rakitic is fitting in perfectly at Barcelona and playing as well as ever before his future is analysed.

The fact that Valverde has renewed for another year with the club is good news as the coach has always bet heavily on the player and was key to him remaining last summer. The importance that the coach places in the Croatian means he rarely misses a game and for his part, Rakitic continues to trust the president’s word. His agent Arturo Canales said a few days ago in Italy that it is impossible to see him leaving in the summer. We will have to wait and see.