Real Betis full-back Emerson Royal is set to stay at the club this season and not return to Barcelona, the club’s sporting director Antonio Cordon has explained: “Currently that (an exit) is impossible.”
The Blaugrana need a new right-back and are said to have identified three possible replacements for Nelson Semedo, who was the only specialist right-back in the club’s first-team squad and is now set to join Wolves in a permanent deal while Moussa Wague has left for PAOK.
Emerson, 21, joined the the Catalan club in January 2019 from Atletico Mineiro in a reported €12.7m deal in a convoluted operation in which both Barcelona and Real Betis paid for half that sum each.
Both clubs now co-own the right-back but he has exclusively played for Betis since his arrival, with Barca’s option to sign him permanently for €6m set to kick in from the summer of 2021.
This means that the Catalan club would likely have to pay Betis a higher sum to complete the deal this year, which would then see him instantly join a potential buyer – as has been extensively reported this summer.
“Emerson’s position is that he is a Betis player,” Cordon explained, as per Diario de Sevilla.
“We do not consider anything at all. Like any club in the world, we would look at an extraordinary or an irreplaceable offer for him but currently that is impossible. This issue is specified in the contracts.”
