Six gestures from players this season that Barcelona will never forget

The summer of 2015 — immediately after the treble-winning season with Luis Enrique — kickstarted a series of regrettable events for Barcelona. Josep Bartomeu was appointed as the president of the club, and during his tenure, Barça became the most controversial entity in football.

After losing Neymar for €222 million, Bartomeu spent €130 million to buy Ousmane Dembele, €140 million for Philippe Coutinho (during the winter transfer window), and another €120 million Antoine Griezmann.

These moves, along with others, created a whirlpool of financial insecurity. As soon as COVID struck, Barcelona started in said whirlpool and had to let the greatest player ever, Lionel Messi leave in the summer of 2021.

For the next administration, headed by Joan Laporta, it had become quite the task to pull the club out of these dangerous waters. A few players stepped up to pull their weight, however, helping Barça reach the shore, at least temporarily.

This was kickstarted by none other than Gerard Pique, who lowered and deferred his salary when the club was struggling to register new signings like Memphis Depay, Eric Garcia, and Sergio Aguero.

This was replicated by Samuel Umtiti, who also reduced his salary and deferred part of it so Barcelona could officially register the new boy from Manchester City, Ferran Torres.

Not to mention two homecoming kings, Dani Alves and Adama Traore, both of whom took humongous pay-cuts to become Barcelona players.

The former is playing on the minimum accepted La Liga wage, while the latter will earn a grand total of €350 thousand in the next six months. For context, he was reportedly due €1.2 million during this time from Wolverhampton Wanderers.

A certain Philippe Coutinho, often under the microscope for negative news, gave up of his salary from Barcelona for the second half of the season before moving to Aston Villa. While the English outfit are covering most of his wages, the garnet and blue had to still pay a part of it, before the Brazilian let it go.

Memphis Depay and Sergio Aguero both had better financial offers from other clubs, but prioritised signing for Barcelona over them. They also massive salary cuts to fit the La Liga wage bill.

Last but definitely not least, Pedri and Ansu Fati renewed their contracts with Barça, even though they could have easily found financially better suitors elsewhere.

And as Barcelona are in talks to sign Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, there are reports that the Arsenal striker could be ready to accept a minimum wage to play for the club.

Gestures like these turned out to be make or break for Barcelona for the most part, especially with new signings hanging in the balance. With the wage cap set to increase in the summer, it will be interesting to see how the Laporta management handles the club’s finances now.