Manchester City make formal approach for former Barcelona midfielder with sell-on clause – Romano | OneFootball

FC Barcelona is never too keen on letting go of promising players when external offers arrive. After all, homegrown players often have a sense of loyalty to the club and have been trained to adhere to the club’s own philosophy as well. Still, there are some cases where Barcelona does let such players go while trying to retain others.

Either due to financial reasons or the player’s own decision to leave for more playing time, there are instances where impressive young talents end up leaving Barcelona. One such case was the recent transfer of Spanish midfielder Unai Hernandez, who has officially joined Saudi Arabian side Al-Ittihad.

However, such deals often include special clauses that can benefit the Catalan club in the future. Such clauses include sell-on percentages that can then help Barcelona generate additional revenue if the player’s new club decides to sell them at some point further down the line.

Such a clause was attached to Spanish talent Nico Gonzalez’s contract when he permanently signed for Portuguese side FC Porto back in 2023. Porto directly paid Barcelona as well, but a 40% sell-on clause was attached to the contract and it could now benefit the Catalan giants.

According to Fabrizio Romano, Premier League side Manchester City is interested in the Spanish and have already made a formal approach to ask about the possibility of signing him. Moreover, talks between the two clubs have already started as well.

Ideally, Porto will try to retain the midfielder’s services or at least demand a sizeable transfer fee for his sale. With an active release clause worth €60 million, Manchester City may need to pay it in order to access the services and quality of the Spanish midfielder.

For Barcelona, it would be good news if the Citizens manage to acquire his services as it would give the Catalan club access to a rather sizeable amount of revenue. It remains to be seen if the deal ultimately ends up going through, but Barça should be hoping for it to work out.