Barcelona have confirmed that they can now register new signing Ferran Torres after extending the contract of Samuel Umtiti who agreed to commit to fresh terms on lower wages.
The French defender signed a new four-and-half-year deal that will see him remain at the club until 2026 albeit with lower wages.
With this gesture by Umtiti, Barcelona can now finally register Torres who had so far been illegible to play as he had not been registered.
Torres made the switch to Barcelona from Manchester City in a deal that cost the Spanish side €55 million in December.
However, despite signing Torres, Barcelona were unable to register the player due to their enormous wage bill and needed to substantially reduce it to be able to field him.
With the departure of Philippe Coutinho who signed a six-month loan deal with Aston Villa, Barcelona were able to drastically reduce their wage bill but the club announced that it wasn’t enough to register the 21-year-old.
They revealed that they had to further reduce it and ultimately, Umtiti’s sacrifice has made it possible.
Barcelona made the announcement via their website with a statement which read:
“FC Barcelona and first-team player Samuel Umtiti have reached an agreement to extend the latter’s contract until 30 June 2026. The French defender is reducing a part of the salary that he was due to receive in the year and a half remaining on his contract.
“This contract extension operation does not entail any greater financial commitments for FC Barcelona with regard to the player.
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“FC Barcelona wishes to publicly express its gratitude to Samuel Umtiti for his willingness and the affection that he has demonstrated towards the club.
“Through this contract extension, FC Barcelona will be able to increase its ‘financial fair play’ quota and thus register Ferran Torres with the Spanish Professional Football League.”
Umtiti has been at Barcelona since making the switch from Lyon in 2016. Since then he has won seven trophies with the club.
There have been several speculations surrounding the player’s future as he seemed to have fallen out of favour in recent times.
Umtiti has only featured once this season for Barcelona which is why many have marvelled at the decision of the club to trust him and hand him a contract extension.
Torres on the other hand will be set to make his debut within the next 10 days after recently testing positive to Covid-19 and is currently self-isolating.
It is very likely he will not be a part of Wednesday’s Supercopa de Espana semi-final clash against rivals Real Madrid but will hopefully return in time for Barca’s Copa del Rey round of 16 tie against Athletic Club on January 19.
Barcelona are in dire need of a player of his quality having struggled for form this season.
Torres will wear the number 19 jersey at the club, Barca announced on Tuesday evening.
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