Following plenty of speculation and rumours that went on for the last few months, the Catalans have finally announced the signing of Dutch star Memphis Depay on their social media last night. The forward will join the club for free once his contract with French Club Lyon expires at the end of this month.
“FC Barcelona and Memphis Depay have reached an agreement to join the club, once his contract with Olympique de Lyon has ended. The player will sign a contract until the end of the 2022/23 season,”
the club’s statement read.
This is Barcelona’s third free agent signing of the summer after former Manchester City players Sergio Aguero and Eric Garcia completed their moves to Barcelona. The five-time Champions League winners also paid nine million euros to activate a recall clause on Brazilian right-back Emerson’s contract. He’ll be transferring from Real Betis to Barcelona. In total, Barcelona have spent just nine million euros on four players.
This desperation and frugality reflect the situation at the club, which is 1.2 billion euros in debt. The previous tenure of the Barcelona board led by Jose Maria Bartomeu had been severely criticised for their mismanagement of finances and off-the-books dealings, which has driven the club to the brink of financial ruin. Barcelona’s members took part in a vote of no confidence against Bartomeu’s board, and former president Joan Laporta was reelected in the following elections. Laporta famously led Barcelona during its golden era under Pep Guardiola and Frank Rijkaard.
The Catalan club have been linked with Depay since last summer when he refused to extend his contract with Lyon. Barcelona’s manager Ronald Koeman has played a key role in the transfer. Depay was the star of the Netherlands side under Koeman before he left to take the job at Barcelona. Koeman and Depay led the Dutch side to a runners-up finish in the inaugural edition of the UEFA Nations League. The two will now be reunited at Camp Nou.
Current Dutch manager Frank de Boer was relieved to hear the news.
“It’s a relief. Maybe that gives him an extra kick to perform even better. We need Memphis in top form.”
Despite scoring from the penalty spot in Netherlands’ recent 2-1 victory over Austria, Depay hasn’t been up to his usual standards at Euro 2020. “Memphis is the first to criticise himself or the way he plays and says to himself: ‘I can do better than what I’ve shown so far’.
“He is not a different person when being criticised. He is very self-confident and knows exactly what he wants. It is not so easy to upset him. Let’s hope he gets to the level we hope he will get. He’s very important for the team,”
concluded de Boer.
