Barcelona’s hopes of keeping Dani Olmo are hanging by a thread after a Spanish court again turned down the club’s attempts to register the attacking midfielder for the second half of the season.
On Friday a commercial court rejected Barcelona’s attempt to claim FFP rules had been inconsistently applied, and on Monday the club failed in a second court hearing.
The Catalan club have one final hope of registering Olmo, and forward Pau Victor, from January 1. They have presented La Liga with €100million of finalised agreements with buyers for VIP boxes at the refurbished Nou Camp that, they claim, prove their salary cap should be adjusted to accommodate Olmo and Victor.
As of yet, La Liga have not ruled on these figures, but it will come to a head soon enough with Barcelona next in action on Saturday against Barbastro in the Copa del Rey. But as of January 1, Olmo will not be registered and will be free to leave the club.
Top Premier League clubs are keeping a close eye on Olmo’s future. Manchester City, Manchester United and Arsenal have all been long-term admirers of the 26-year-old attacking midfielder, who was one of the stars of Spain’s Euro 2024-winning team.
Olmo joined Barcelona from RB Leipzig for £51million last summer, but the club were unable to register him for all of the season because of a salary cap that limited their spending.
The Spanish club, mired in debt, registered Olmo until December 31 using 80 per cent of the injured defender Andreas Christensen’s pay thanks to an exception allowing clubs to replace long-term absentees.
After La Liga refused Barcelona’s request to extend Olmo’s registration to the end of the season they took the case to court claiming unfair competition, but the court said, in a ruling last Monday, that it had rejected the club’s requests as none of the criteria had been met.
“The aim of authorising the overspend is so that a long-term injury does not undermine the team’s competition, not so that the long-term injury allows the registration of players who exceed the limit with their salary, which Barcelona tried to do,” the court ruled.
Olmo was part of the Spain side that beat England in the final of Euro 2024
MATT MCNULTY/UEFA VIA GETTY IMAGES
Olmo’s departure would be a huge blow to Barcelona, who last summer gave him a six-year contract, which contained a £429million release clause, after he scored three goals to help Spain win the Euros. He was one of the six players who were jointly awarded the Golden Boot after finishing level as the tournament’s top scorers.
He has scored five goals in 11 league appearances for Barcelona this season.
Olmo had played for Barcelona at youth level before joining the Croatian side Dynamo Zagreb in 2014. He then spent six years in Germany with RB Leipzig.
Barcelona are more than £1billion in debt and have had problems registering other players, such as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Ferran Torres, in the past couple of years.
Olmo held a meeting with his lawyer to discuss the matter last week before flying to the United States for a mid-season holiday.
His agent, Andy Bara, said he has been “on holiday” in Manchester this week and he was at the Etihad Stadium for City’s 1-1 draw against Everton on Boxing Day.
