The Barcelona squad is not pleased with the recent statements by the club’s president, Joan Laporta. The Spanish report that Cadena COPE. The minister recently indicated at the club’s annual general meeting that he was disappointed in a number of selection players who refused to hand in part of their salary.
Barcelona has been struggling with enormous financial debts for a long time, so that Laporta knocked on several players from the selection last summer to ask if they wanted to waive part of the salary, including Frenkie de Jong. With his millions of salary, the midfielder put a lot of pressure on the budget of the Catalans, as a result of which Laporta would have preferred to sell the ex-Ajacied to Manchester United or Chelsea, who were both interested last summer. However, De Jong wanted to stay with Barcelona at all costs and eventually agreed to a salary reduction, just like Gerard Pique.
Laporta would have liked more selection players to follow that example, he recently indicated. “We talked to a lot of players about pay cuts, but they didn’t want to,” the president said. Because not all selection players waived part of the salary, several board members reportedly had to advance ten million euros of their own money to enroll Jules Koundé, who came over from Sevilla for fifty million euros, for LaLiga. According to the president, that would not have been necessary if, in addition to De Jong and Pique, more players had waived part of the wages. “But we accepted it with sportsmanship,” said Laporta.
The selection of Barcelona is not pleased with the statements of the president, who are especially surprised about the timing of Laporta. The Catalans are on the eve of a crucial week. It must be won against Internazionale in the Champions League in its own Spotify Camp Nou on Wednesday evening to keep an eye on overwintering in the billion-dollar ball, while the game against Real Madrid is on the program on Sunday afternoon. Barcelona and los Blancos are tied for first place with 22 points after eight competition matches. El Classico starts on Sunday at 4:15 PM.