Barcelona are intent on signing Manchester City defender Eric Garcia (pictured) and the clubs are also negotiating to swap right-backs Nelson Semedo and Joao Cancelo.
The details are outlined by the front page of Thursday’s edition of Diario Sport, which claims the two clubs are involved in a ‘barter’ for the defenders with Garcia driving the Catalan club’s intentions.
⚠️🔵🔴 Barça y City empiezan a hablar para intercambiar a Semedo por Cancelo y Eric Garcia. Sería una operación para cuadrar cuentas y traer ya a Eric Garcia. Mendes está en la negociación #fcblive pic.twitter.com/G320zhtBXx
— Albert Rogé (@albert_roge) July 22, 2020
It is said that Man City are the club pushing for the exchange of Portuguese full-backs Semedo and Cancelo, which the Blaugrana are not as keen on but are willing to agree upon if they can facilitate the return of Garcia.
Earlier this month, a claim from Barcelona-based journalist Lu Martin said that news of Barcelona interest in the return of their former youth product was a lie and the briefings to Catalan media were a PR venture to indicate to the club’s fanbases that they are making efforts to sign the player but cannot compete with City’s wages.
It follows a report last month in Diario Sport which claimed the defender is now into the final 12 months of his contract at the English champions, rather than the deal ending in 2022 as originally reported and as such Barcelona were in ‘control’ of his future.
That report drew the parallels between Garcia and that of Gerard Pique – who left La Masia’s youth academy due to mismanagement and joined Manchester United, before returning to the Camp Nou and enjoying a long and distinguished career at the club.
Garcia has been involved for Pep Guardiola’s side in the run-in to the campaign and his future could be one to watch for Barcelona transfer news this summer.
