Barça: the funny situation of Jules Koundé, still not registered on the Barça lists

His transfer was supposed to allow him to turn a corner, but for the moment, Jules Koundé has no choice but to languish in training.

Arrived at FC Barcelona from Sevilla FC on July 29, for 50 million euros, the French defender could not play any official match in his new colors.

And for good reason: he is still not registered in the club's workforce, which is struggling with payroll concerns, while La Liga resumed last week.

A delicate situation, which will have to be resolved by August 31.

Required departures

The equation has been known for a while for Barça, which was already struggling to get into the nails of Spanish financial fair play last year.

Flirting with the limit for its payroll, which it wanted to see drop by 160 million euros this summer, the Catalan club has already had to cut back to be able to integrate its other recruits.

Like Robert Lewandowski and Raphinha, they were all in the squad to face Rayo Vallecano last Saturday.

But there are now still a few million to save to include Koundé in turn on the La Liga lists.

𝑯𝒐𝒍𝒂 𝑪𝒖𝒍𝒆𝒓𝒔!

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— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona_es) July 28, 2022

For Barça, the simplest solution would be to sell one of the players not fitting into Xavi's plans for the coming season.

Undesirable at the club, Martin Braithwaite and Samuel Umtiti, who would be coveted by Lecce in Serie A, are thus pushed towards the exit.

The departure of a leading player could also solve the problem: the savior could be Memphis Depay, whose name is mentioned with insistence on the side of Juventus, or Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who would have received an offer from Chelsea.

Executives polled for a pay cut

At the same time, the Catalan leaders are negotiating with their executives for a salary cut, which could take Barça out of the red zone.

According to local media, meetings have already been organized on this subject with Sergio Busquets and Gérard Piqué.

Last year, the latter had already agreed to have part of his salary paid deferred, to allow Memphis to sign.

Earlier in the summer, the Blaugrana club had also sold part of its TV rights and 25% of Barça Studios to recover nearly 400 million euros.

Read alsoMercato: Jules Koundé displays his ambition at Barça, and hopes to go "as high as possible"

The levers to allow Koundé to integrate the workforce are therefore still numerous.

The Frenchman is still a little physically tight, which would explain why Barça did not do everything in their power to get him to play from the first day.

But he could be pressed for time: according to local radio show Carrusel, the defender will be released from his contract if he doesn't sign up for La Liga on August 31.

Not enough to panic his new club, which is still working on the arrival of new recruits by the end of the transfer window…