Barcelona Planning $90m Transfer After Messi, Griezmann Exits: Report

Antoine Griezmann & Lionel Messi

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Barcelona is reportedly already thinking about ways to strengthen the club’s attack following the summer departures of Lionel Messi and Antoine Griezmann.

Another chaotic summer at the Camp Nou saw Barca reach agreement regarding a new contract for Messi but then lose the captain “because of financial and structural obstacles.”

Griezmann followed Messi out of the exit door on deadline day, returning to former club Atletico Madrid on loan with an option to buy. The departures help reduce the club’s wage bill and will also ease some of the financial pressures at the Camp Nou.

However, it seems the Catalan giants are already looking to the future and have identified Dani Olmo as a transfer target. Ferran Martinez at Mundo Deportivo reports that the forward is one of the club’s “great objectives to strengthen the squad in 2022.”

The report adds that Barca will even try to land Olmo when the transfer window reopens in January. The Catalans are also attracted to Olmo because he came through the club’s academy and “understands perfectly” the Barcelona style of play.

Olmo left Barcelona in 2014 for Dynamo Zagreb and subsequently joined Bundesliga side RB Leipzig in 2020. Martinez reports that RB Leipzig value Olmo at 75 million ($89m) currently but Barca will try to negotiate the price down.

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Olmo Talks Barcelona

Olmo has previously spoken about his time with Barcelona and made his fondness for the club clear. He told the Players’ Tribune why he has such affection for the Catalan giants, as reported by Mundo Deportivo.

“Barça will always have a special place in my heart,” he said. “It was a privilege to have played there. They are a reference point for the rest of the football world and any child would give anything to play there, where so many greats have come and learned the trade.”

The Spain international has regularly been linked with a return and explained why he ended up at RB Leipzig rather than Barcelona in 2020, as reported by Mundo Deportivo.

“They spoke to my agents in November as if they wanted to do a deal very quickly, but then they postponed everything for one reason or another,” he said. “And so until the end of January, they asked me to wait. Then they saw that I had almost completed a deal with Leipzig. I was already committed. I wanted to go to a team that had a present and future project for me. Leipzig offered it to me and other teams did not. They showed that they loved me more.”

It appears that Barca could try again to bring Olmo back as the club looks to build a new and exciting team at the Camp Nou. If Olmo does return he will join a host of other top talents who have come through the club’s famous La Masia academy.

Barca’s new No. 10 Ansu Fati and players such as Oscar Mingueza, Eric Garcia, Gavi, Riqui Puig, and Nico Gonzalez are just some of the academy graduates currently enjoying game time with the first team.

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