Barcelona defender on the radars of La Liga rivals, loan with buy option being discussed

As reported by SPORT, Eric Garcia is most likely to leave Barcelona for Real Betis this summer.

The report states that both Betis and Barça share a great working relationship and the recent appointment of Ramon Planes as director at Estadio Benito Villamarin will only strengthen the ties.

At the moment, the two teams are reportedly in talks over a loan deal for Nico Gonzalez. And there are high chances that Garcia might accompany him since he knows that getting regular minutes in the 2023-24 season will be quite difficult at Barça considering the competition and the arrival of Inigo Martinez.

Garcia arrived at Barcelona in the summer of 2021. During his initial days, he remained an unassailable starer for Ronald Koeman but lost his position since Xavi’s arrival. Now, his performances as a makeshift defensive midfielder were impressive but the player does not want to waste any more time being a squad player.

As far as Betis are concerned, Garica’s option was brought to them by Ramon Planes, who got him to Barcelona during his time with the Catalan team. The sporting director now wants to strengthen Manuel Pellegrini’s roster and for that, an initial loan move with a purchase option is being discussed by the teams.

Now, if Garica moves, Barcelona might get a chance to sign a right-back. This is because Samuel Umtiti has already been released while Clement Lenglet is on the verge to move to Tottenham on a permanent transfer.

Garcia’s exit will give Barcelona enough room to sign a defensive reinforcement on the right. Currently, the idea that is being discussed internally is to have four central defenders – Ronald Araujo, Jules Kounde, Andreas Christensen, and Martínez, two left-backs – Marcos Alonso and Alejandro Balde, and a specialist right-back.

For that, the team is already exploring options to sign either Ivan Fresneda or Joao Cancelo.