Barcelona to generate €4 million in salary space from out-of-favour duo’s exit | OneFootball

Earlier today, FC Barcelona officially announced that they had extended the contract of Inaki Pena before loaning him out to Elche CF.

The 26-year-old goalkeeper will play for the newly-promoted La Liga club for the rest of the season, after renewing his contract at Barça until 2029.

Soon after, reports emerged confirming that Barcelona and Oriol Romeu were on the verge of finalising an agreement for the termination of his contract, which could be announced as early as Thursday.

Barcelona to free up €4 million in Fair Play margin

Now, according to Anais Marti on La Vanguardia, the loan exit of Pena, coupled with the imminent contract termination of Romeu, will generate around €4 million in terms of Financial Fair Play margin.

Pena was understood to be on a salary of €3 million per year gross, which has been deferred following his contract renewal until 2029.

As for Romeu, Barcelona expected the midfielder to renounce at least half of his final year’s salary, but in the end, he accepted a smaller reduction.

Romeu will soon leave Barcelona. (Photo by Alex Caparros/Getty Images)

Together, it will clear up €4 million as far as the club’s salary margin is concerned.

Still not enough

Pena’s departure to Elche should clear up enough room for Barcelona to register Wojciech Szczesny in La Liga before the upcoming game against Rayo Vallecano.

However, the €4 million space generated from his and Romeu’s exit will still not be enough for the Catalans to register the other pending players – Gerard Martin, Roony Bardghji, and Marc Bernal.

The latter, however, can still play for the first team with a reserve-team registration, as he is under 23 years old and has not yet played ten official matches with Barça.

But for Martin and Bardghji, the Barcelona board might be forced to activate an extension of the financial guarantee, increasing it from €7 million to €10 million, even while Deco works on finalising the loan exit of Hector Fort.

The potential sale of Fermin Lopez, being courted by Chelsea, could prevent the need for this increase in the guarantee.