There is no longer much doubt about the designated successor to replace Marc-André ter Stegen in the FC Barcelona goal. Seriously injured against Villarreal this Sunday, the 32-year-old German will miss the entire season with the Blaugranas. Successfully operated on after the announcement of his complete rupture of the patellar tendon in his right knee, the Catalan management found itself with its back to the wall, looking for a new goalkeeper. It was finally Wojciech Szczęsny who was chosen by Barça to fill the place left vacant in goal by the German goalkeeper. The Polish goalkeeper announced this summer that he was retiring and thus leaving Juventus after the arrival of Michele Di Gregorio at the Bianconeri, but the Catalan club considers that among all the candidates listed by the management, the former Arsenal and AS Roma player represents the best profile to minimize the consequences of the injury of a key player like Marc-André ter Stegen.
Several names had circulated in the Spanish press, notably between Stole Dimitrievski of Valencia, Guillaume Restes of Toulouse, Keylor Navas and Iñaki Peña, the current understudy at Barça. Nevertheless, Hansi Flick announced, in a press conference this Tuesday, that while waiting for a solution to be found, it will be Peña who will start in the Barcelona eleven, starting with the match this Wednesday evening against Getafe in La Liga: “We’ll see. Iñaki (Pena) is doing very well, he’s very professional and has trained very hard. He’s focused, even though he’s the second goalkeeper. We trust him. We’ll see what we do, we also have very young players in defense. At the moment, we don’t feel under pressure and we trust Iñaki Peña. » Thanks to the first fruitful contacts between Barça and Szczęsny as well as Robert Lewandowski’s pressure on the phone, everything suggests today that Szczęsny has indeed been convinced. He should commit to FC Barcelona in the next few hours, but…
A clause that the player must pay
Before being able to go further in the negotiations and thus finalize the terms of the operation, FC Barcelona must settle a small contractual snafu with Juventus, Wojciech Szczęsny’s former club. Indeed, when he terminated his contract with the Old Lady last summer, the 34-year-old goalkeeper agreed with the Italian club to establish a clause stipulating that if he were to join a top club in Europe in the very near future following his announcement of retirement, then the Pole would have to pay a sum of money to the transalpine club. This amount has not been revealed, but Barça is waiting for Wojciech Szczęsny to first settle this issue before formally tackling his incorporation into the squad. This is in any case what the Catalan newspaper recalls SPORT this Wednesday morning. The end of Szczesny’s contract at Juventus was nothing like a classic lease expiration.
In fact, the Bianconeri have agreed to terminate the Pole’s contract, which was initially scheduled to expire on June 30, 2025, to accommodate his retirement wishes: ” My body is still prepared, but my heart is no longer there “, explained the Warsaw native. Not constituting a natural end to the contract, the Italian team wanted to include a small penalty in case the goalkeeper commits to a team for the next few months. As this case may ultimately occur, it will be necessary to see if the negotiations between the Pole and Juve allow this clause to be cancelled or, on the contrary, paid on time. In the latter case, it is also necessary to see what share Barça can have in this payment. The newspaper SPORT confirms that Wojciech Szczęsny is attracted to the Catalan project, even though he knows he will not be a starter immediately. However, he is convinced that his career and experience will allow him to become Barça’s number one in the coming months once he has reached optimal physical tone.
