João Cancelo will be a Barcelona player this week. In fact, the Portuguese will travel to Barcelona in the next few hours to finalize the deal with the club. After many tug-of-wars with the Blaugrana economy, Barça will be able to defuse this situation and finalize his contract in the last days of the market. The 29-year-old Portuguese is one of the names of the culé market. It had long been one of Xavi’s explicit requests. However, due to the complicated financial situation of the club, this operation could not be carried out beforehand. The final solution will be an order with an option to buy.
Cancelo is in Portugal training alone after being kicked out of the City Zen discipline. Guardiola doesn’t have it. The need for his arrival is mutual. Cancelo, who has a contract with the English until 2027, will feel important again after being excluded from City and a bitter experience at Bayern Munich. In addition, he will arrive at Barça with good status and starting XI of a right-back who has been an orphan of the specialists since the departure of Dani Alves. For their part, Barça will finally have a guaranteed right-back, allowing Araújo and Koundé to develop in central defence, where they can perform better. Likewise, it is not only a right wing solution but can also be played on the left. It also settles the question of Balde’s replacement as Marcos Alonso’s future is more uncertain than ever: Manchester United, the last team behind him.
Integration will not be a problem. If there’s anything João Cancelo excels at, it’s his versatility. His best performances in the Mancunian side came at left-back, where he heavily interfered in the inside game with the pivot. This represents a major advantage of the face in adapting to the Culé style of play, which requires a lot of positional play and knowledge of spaces. Guardiola was a good teacher for Xavi’s new student.
One of the keys to improving the economic situation and managing the defender’s signing was leverage, which brought in 120 million after selling 29.5% of Barça Vision. It was this movement that made it possible to carry out the inscriptions. In the absence of an adjustment of certain nuances to financial fair play to carry out Cancelo’s registration in LaLiga, Barça carry out one of the operations that Xavi and the fans have asked for the most.
