Barcelona are about complete their third summer signing in Marcus Rashford, but as of yet, neither of the first two have been registered as a first team player. This is more of a concern for Joan Garcia, given that it is expected for Ronny Bardghji to be listed as a Barca Atletic player for the 2025-26 campaign, which still allows him to play for Hansi Flick’s squad.
Despite making significant efforts to improve their financial situation, Barcelona are still far away from parity. And this means that their salary limit is much lower than they’d like, which means that it is trickier for them to register new signings.
Barcelona had hoped to be back within La Liga’s 1:1 rule by now, but currently, it is not the case. And because of this, Garcia is still not registered, although there is a chance that he could be as early as this week.
As reported by MD, Marc-Andre Ter Stegen could be the key to Barcelona registering Garcia this week. In the coming days, the Germany international will decide whether to undergo surgery on a recurring back injury, and if he does, it would allow the Catalans to de-register him, and use 80% of his salary to register the former Espanyol goalkeeper – or Wojciech Szczesny, who also needs to be re-registered after signing a new contract with the reigning La Liga champions.
Barcelona used this method last season
Ter Stegen would miss four months if he were to undergo surgery, which means that it would be classed as a long-term injury. As such, it allows Barcelona to use 80% of his salary to register Garcia, which they also did last season when Andreas Christensen went under the knife – this allowed Dani Olmo to be registered with La Liga.
Barcelona’s ideal situation would be to sell Ter Stegen, but the chances of him leaving this summer are looking increasingly slim. As such, him being de-registered could be the best possible alternative, but for now, it remains to be seen whether he decides to undergo surgery.
