Barcelona plan to offer defender a new contract with salary deferral and reduction

According to Toni Juanmarti, Barcelona are considering offering veteran defender Jordi Alba a new contract with a salary reduction and deferral in order to deal with their Financial Fair Play issues.

Alba’s current contract with the Blaugrana expires in the summer of 2024. The 34-year-old left-back will be owed a massive €38 million in salary for next season thanks to past renewals and deferrals.

Given the club’s current situation with regard to the Financial Fair Play, they are in no position to make those payments. In fact, the Catalans need to make massive cuts to their wage bill if they are to be able to sign and register new players.

As part of their strategy to reduce their salary budget, Barcelona plan to discuss wage cuts and downward renewals with several players over the coming months.

And, Alba is one such player to whom the club want to offer a new contract with a reduced salary as well as a deferral. Such a move would help the Blaugrana with their Financial Fair Play problems, which would then enable player registration smoothly.

Barcelona had pulled off a similar manouevre with Samuel Umtiti back in January 2022, which in turn had helped them register the signing of Ferran Torres. And they intend to repeat the trick with Alba’s contract as well.

There had been reports that the La Liga leaders would actually try to offload Alba in the summer. But the veteran defender has every intention of fulfilling his contract at the club.

Hence, with the chances of an exit looking slimmer, it seems like Barça have turned to the option of a downward renewal, along with a deferral.

It is a whole different question as to whether Alba would be willing to accept such terms. But the left-back, whose game-time has taken a huge hit in recent months, has previously insisted that he would be willing to help the club in any way he can.