Barcelona are on the verge of signing Leipzig midfielder Dani
Olmo
, the player from the La Masia youth academy is set to return to his parent team after a 10-year absence. According to The Athletic.
Barcelona
Sporting director Decaux was convinced that the team needed to add to their attacking arsenal, and Olmo was just the versatile player they needed, able to play in multiple positions and consistently involved in goals, earning new manager
Frick
The favor.
Barcelona knew months ago that Olmo was eager to return to Spain. Although he has been tipped to leave Leipzig this summer, Olmo has been willing to wait for Barca to sort out their finances before registering him. Barca's number one target was actually Bilbao winger Nico, but two weeks ago, sources at the club were pessimistic about Nico joining the club, so Barca decided to push forward with talks with Olmo.
Deco has been in active dialog with the Olmo camp and Leipzig over the past week and flew to Germany on Monday to finalize the deal. Eventually, at the player's insistence, an agreement was reached between all parties.
However, it may come as a surprise that Barcelona signed Olmo for €60 million due to financial issues. La Liga is not allowing Barca to register new players at the moment due to the fact that Barca Studios had a €100 million shortfall in their accounts last season. This means that Olmo could sign for Barca and debut, but not represent the team in any games for the time being.
For its part, Barcelona has expressed confidence in solving the problem, and one of the ways to do so would be to have a new investor take over the German company Libero, which was supposed to provide them with funding. However, the specifics are unclear and it remains to be seen whether La Liga will accept the new proposal put forward by Barcelona.
