Racing Club official reveals club’s stance on Barcelona target Jorge Salinas | OneFootball

The left-back is one of the positions that FC Barcelona are looking to strengthen in this summer transfer window. The Catalans are yet to finalize the return of Joao Cancelo after his loan ended, despite him being a key demand of Hansi Flick for the next season. Meanwhile, the future of Alejandro Balde is also somewhat uncertain at the Blaugrana club.

Thus, Barcelona have reportedly been linked with several fullbacks in the market, and one player whom they had got quite close to landing was the Racing Club youngster Jorge Salinas.

However, this operation has experienced complications as there are some disagreements and confusion about the defender’s release clause. Barcelona believed it stood at €4 million, but the Santander club is quite confident that this release clause has now grown up to €16 million.

As Mundo Deportivo has reported, this version of Racing Club was explained by their Communications Director, Roberto Gonzalez, in an interview with Teiba Sport. The official agreed that Salinas’ release clause stood at €4 million at the start of the last season, but increased to €8 million after he played his ten games with the first team. Furthermore, this release clause doubled to €16 million when Racing was promoted to the first division.

Gonzalez went on to highlight that the fullback and other players in the first have already seen their salaries updated since their promotion to La Liga was confirmed. In this regard, he said:

“There’s no reference to any specific dates. Nothing changes from June 30 to July 1. In our view, it’s very clear that Racing has been a First Division club for more than a month.”

The official also made it clear that his clubs wants the defender to stay:

“He’s a very important player, and we don’t want him to leave.”

Meanwhile, Gonzalez pointed to Salinas’ release clause if any side wanted him:

“We don’t haggle over important players, and Jorge is one of them. They had to pay the release clause for Peque, Jeremy…”

However, he also left the door open for a potential swap deal:

“The starting point is the release clause. From there, we’re not fools. If someone offers less than the clause but includes an outstanding player in the deal, maybe our sporting department would accept it.”

“If a really attractive player is involved, it might be worth it for us.”