FC Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain have reached an agreement in principle for striker Ferran Torres according to SPORT and several anonymous sources close to the French club, which makes a permanent sale imminent. Later, Jijantes also confirmed the news.
The final price reportedly agreed is $58 million (€50 million) plus $6 million (€5 million) in bonuses meaning Barça could managed to recover almost all of of the $64 million (€55 million) it said it’d pay Manchester City for Ferran’s services in late 2021.
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A transfer saga surrounding Ferran kicked off during the World Cup, when reports that PSG were in advanced talks with the 26-year-old began to spread through the Catalan media.
Ferran scored just one goal for La Roja at the FIFA tournament as an understudy to Mikel Oyarzabal.
Yet it was one of the most important in the history of the national team given it came in the final against Argentina, and therefore sealed a second Spanish World Cup title via a 1-0 extra time win.
Barça was reportedly interested in renewing Ferran, whose contract is set to expire on June 30, 2027.
They wouldn’t have been able to do this until September owing to Financial Fair Play (FFP) issues, however, and there was also a stance from the club that it wouldn’t stand in the way of Ferran wishing to leave as long as PSG came up with a reasonable fee.
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The past few days have seen reports of Ferran accepting PSG’s offer and Barça waiting for the Qatar-backed outfit to make a second approach after knocking back an initial bid on Monday.
That has now happened, and Ferran’s near-half decade at the Spotify Camp Nou is seemingly coming to a close. With 65 goals in 207 appearances, he’ll depart as a three-time La Liga champion.
Ferran Torres was never going to be the main star at FC Barcelona
Throughout the development of this eventual transfer, there were reports of Ferran not feeling valued by Barça, which he even publicly communicated in a fashion by telling American media that the club needed to show it “wants” him.
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Hansi Flick and the board reportedly couldn’t understand why Ferran wasn’t happy with a secondary role in their squad given that’s what he has with Spain in Oyarzabal’s shadow.
Ferran apparently didn’t like Barça pursuing Julian Alvarez as a successor to the now departed Robert Lewandowski. Ultimately, though, he has decided to leave and seal his exit ahead of Sporting Director Deco perhaps not landing an established striker at all.
If that happens, Flick has already hinted that FC Barcelona will look at in-house solutions such as Lamine Yamal operating as a ‘false nine’. Dani Olmo is another potential choice in that respect, in addition to new signings Anthony Gordon and Karim Adeyemi.
This article was originally published on Forbes.com
