Barcelona have no option to unilaterally recall loanee in January – report

Earlier this month, there had been a lot of speculations surrounding Barcelona midfielder Nico Gonzalez, who is currently out on loan at Valencia.

The 20-year-old La Masia graduate left Camp Nou for the Mestalla in the summer window in search of regular game-time as there was an overload of midfielders in the Barça squad.

However, Nico has failed to feature prominently for Valencia under their new manager, Gennaro Gattuso. While he has played in ten of Los Che’s 11 La Liga matches so far, only four have come from the start.

It has led to concerns within the Barcelona camp, with reports suggesting that the Catalan giants were considering recalling the Spaniard back from his loan spell at Valencia in the January transfer window.

However, according to Mundo Deportivo, the loan agreement between Barcelona and Valencia does not include any clause that would allow the Blaugrana to unilaterally terminate his spell midway through the campaign unilaterally.

The only way that the 20-year-old could return to Spotify Camp Nou in the winter would be if the two clubs sit down and negotiate an early termination of the loan agreement.

However, that is an unlikely prospect as Gattuso has previously made it clear that Valencia intend to keep Nico at the club until the end of the season.

In addition to that, there is no clause stipulating that Nico needs to play a fixed number of games for Valencia either, meaning that the manager can use the La Masia product as he sees fit.

So, as things stand, there is little chance of the midfielder returning to Barcelona in January.

The Catalans will face Valencia at the Mestalla tomorrow, but Nico will not be involved due to the presence of the ‘fear clause’ in the loan agreement that prohibits Los Che from using him against Barça.