Barcelona are set to bid farewell to Mikayil Faye after a single season, with Porto his destination. The Blaugrana will close their accounts for the 2023-24 season in just five days time, and it appears that deadline has accelerated a move.
Faye, 19, did not manage to debut with the first team, after a promising season at Barca Atletic, despite earning a call-up to the Senegal national team. Despite talks with Faye ending in an agreement for him to move up to the first team this summer, it appears he is the latest casualty of their financial situation.
Barcelona have taken Marc Guiu's departure for granted. @ffpolo
— barcacentre (@barcacentre) June 24, 2024
Football España had been informed that Barcelona were demanding more than the €15m offered by Porto, but Relevo now report that the Catalan giants appear to have given in, and will accept those terms. They turned down bids around €10m in the January window from RC Lens, while Bayer Leverkusen, Manchester United and Juventus all scouted him in the subsequent months, but it appears he will head to Deco’s old team in the end, where former Barcelona Sporting Director Andoni Zubizarreta was recently installed.
Faye represents a strong profit in just a single year for Barcelona, having signed him for just €2m, and the reality is that in a different financial situation, they might have tried to loan the Senegalese out, but it would have been difficult for him to carve out a place in the first team without at least two departures of more senior players ahead of him. Pau Cubarsi, Ronald Araujo, Inigo Martinez, Jules Kounde and Andreas Christensen form formidable competition.
