The long wait until Vitor Roque, “Tigrinho”, debuts in the FC Barcelona jersey is finally over. The final chapter: the home game on Thursday in Gran Canaria against Las Palmas (9:30 p.m., in Movistar LaLiga), for which he received the OK in extremis of LaLiga. A new economic problem, since the 40 million euros corresponding to the sale of 10% of Barça Vision to Libero has not been received, has led to the registration of the Brazilian contract – in Barcelona for a week, on December 27th – was postponed is complicated. Without a salary range, the club must take advantage of Article 77 of LaLiga and take advantage of the signing of the seriously injured Gavi. Despite everything, the Barça board always hoped that his registration would arrive in time for him to debut in the first game of the year. “He will be on the squad list and we hope he can be available. I guess it’s a matter of hours,” said Xavi Hernández before the game. And he added: “We will proceed with caution.” He is an 18-year-old boy and we cannot hold him responsible. “It was looked after and arrived well.”
The Barça club has brought forward the signing of the Brazilian to address the lack of goals for a team that is struggling to score. Lewandowski found the net nine times – he didn't score in the team's last win (3-2) against Almería – and is a long way from the 30 goals he scored last season. A footballing need that doesn't fit the club's financial situation. Barcelona did not receive the 40 million euros that the investment fund Libero Football Finance AG had to pay before December 31, 2023. A deadline that the board extended twice as payment was originally scheduled for the last month of August. But it didn't happen. The club has taken all appropriate legal action and is working to find a new buyer.
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Given the need, Laporta and his board must take advantage of Gavi's injury and invoke Article 77 of the LaLiga regulations, which allows an exceeded club, as in the case of Barcelona, to use up to 80% of the players' costs of the long-term injured and a maximum of 2% of the squad cost limit. Given that the amount allocated to Barça last September was 270 million euros, the maximum amount will be 5.4 million. To do this, an annex must be included in Roque's contract that commits him until June 30, 2024. The player has been training with the team under Xavi since December 29th. “Raphinha acted as Cicero in the squad, Araujo also spoke to him because he knows Portuguese and there is Bojan who can accompany him perfectly. He is very young, but we will help him,” said the Blaugrana coach the adaptation of Vitor Roque.
So this is a temporary solution. If sufficient space for registration has not been created on July 1, the player will be excluded from the official squad in accordance with financial fair play. The Brazilian is a Barça footballer until 2031, thanks to an operation with Atlético Paranaense that ended at 30 million euros fixed and 31 million euros variable. Therefore, Barcelona will definitely have to repeat the process of signing Roque for a full contract in the summer window.
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