The ways of Rey Manaj and Barcelona separate, the Spanish top club reported on Tuesday evening via the official channels. The attacker will be rented out to Spezia for the rest of the season, where former Azulgrana Thiago Motta is in front of the selection and Jeroen Zoet is part of the selection. Barcelona will receive three hundred thousand euros for the loan of the attacker, while Spezia has a non-mandatory option to buy 2.7 million euros on the Albanian international.
Manaj came over from Albacete in January 2020 and at the time signed a contract until mid-2023. The 24-year-old Albanian entered Sampdoria’s youth academy at a young age. In the summer of 2014, he made the switch to Cremonese, who played at the third level in Italy at the time. There he earned a transfer to Internazionale, where he played a total of nine matches at the highest level.
After rental periods at Pescara and Pisa, Manaj eventually ended up at Albacete via Granada: the Spanish club took over the attacker from Inter in the summer of 2019 for two million euros. After 10 goals in 41 matches, Manaj made the switch to Barcelona, where he only got official playing time at Barcelona B.
Manaj scored 14 goals in 22 games in Barcelona’s second last season. The attacker was part of the preparation of Ronald Koeman’s first selection for the new season this summer. On July 21, he scored a hat-trick in the exhibition game against Gimnàstic (4-0). However, he will leave without official playing time for the Catalans’ first.
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