Why can t Barcelona sign Nico?

Barcelona's negotiations with Nico Williams broke down, and the player chose to renew his contract

The transfer farce surrounding Nico Williams finally came to an end. The player finally decided to renew his contract with Athletic Bilbao to stay in the team instead of joining Barcelona. Previously, the two sides had been negotiating for several days to try to reach an agreement to ensure that the players can register smoothly. But in the end, the negotiations broke down.

It is revealed that Nico hopes that Barcelona will add a special clause to the contract: If Barcelona still has no registered place a few days before the transfer market is closed, then the player will automatically be free and can leave the team for free. However, Barcelona firmly opposes this. The club cannot accept such a risk - once the registration is unable to be completed, they will not only lose 60 million euros in termination expenses, but may also lose both their own and their wealth.

Last Monday, Barcelona made this position clear and said they would not make any concessions. In addition, there are some other issues that have hindered the progress of negotiations, such as payment methods for termination fees and broker commissions. The two sides have never reached an agreement on such details.

At the same time, Barcelona also explained to the players and their representatives that they are expected to return to a state that complies with the "1:1 rule" of La Liga (that is, each player introduced must first send away a player of the same salary). The club mentioned a commercial agreement related to VIP seats at the Spotify Camp Nou Stadium, an operation expected to be approved by La Liga soon. At present, Barcelona has submitted all necessary documents and can restore compliance status after waiting for approval.

In addition, Barcelona also informed the opponent of the total team's salary. The departure of several players has freed up a certain amount of salary space, and the recent transfer operations of Ansu Fati and Lenglet also freed up the budget for signing Nico. Although the club also needs to compensate for some of the costs incurred by introducing replacement players due to injuries (such as the introduction of Schensny to replace Ter Stegen), sports management has detailed plans to accommodate Nico's contract.

It is reported that Nico's salary structure roughly includes: a termination fee ratio of about 10 million euros, and a basic annual salary of 12 million euros, totaling about 22 million euros. This will account for a considerable portion of the team's total salary.

However, these remarks did not impress the player himself and his agent. Nico is also unwilling to risk being unable to register in the new season. Seeing that there was no breakthrough with Barcelona, ​​he turned to negotiate a contract renewal with Bilbao. On Friday, Bilbao officially announced a contract renewal agreement with Nico and significantly increased its termination fee clause to an astonishing amount.

Barcelona learned the news from the broker's phone call as the negotiations were approaching the end. In fact, considering Nico's recent attitude changes, Barcelona has already expected it and believes that he is very likely to choose to stay in the Basque Country.

At this point, the transfer storm has officially come to an end. Barcelona missed the highly anticipated wing star, while Nico Williams chose to continue playing for Bilbao.