Barcelona’s FFP headache could be eased with €60m Man Utd transfer

Robin Bairner | Chief Editor

Accredited football journalist and editor covering the game since 2006

Barcelona could find Manchester United as an unlikely solution to their Financial Fair Play (FFP) issues during the January transfer window.

Barca’s spending is set to be severely restricted in the forthcoming transfer period, with the Catalan club still paying the price for years of financial mismanagement.

Landing any new talent promises to be a challenge, although they have some wiggle room in their wage budget due to Gavi’s long-term injury, which LaLiga will make an allowance for.

Man Utd’s move for Nice defender Jean-Clair Todibo, though, could transform the fortunes of Barca during January.

Sport reports that if the France international were to make a €60 million move to Old Trafford for the Ligue 1 side, Barcelona would find themselves a very healthy €12m better off.

And a transfer in January looks possible.

“He's really appreciated by the whole scouting department. Erik ten Hag is a big fan of him, and he wants to try out English football,” Fabrizio Romano confirmed to the United Stand.

Barcelona set for Todibo windfall

When Todibo left Barcelona on a permanent basis in the summer of 2021 to sign for Nice, he did so for a modest fee of €8.5m, yet the Camp Nou side inserted a clause into that deal that saw them retain 20% of any sell-on value the French club were to get for the player.

It appears that Barca are about to cash in on that, yet the €60m figure mentioned by Sport is likely to be optimistic in terms of what the club might land.

Man Utd, after all, will soon be 25% bought over by Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who also owns Nice. The Old Trafford club are fighting their own FFP demons, so therefore the billionaire is likely to manufacture a deal favourable to his new investment.

In any case, €60m for Todibo would have been a high figure. The 26-year-old’s Expected Transfer Value (ETV), is just €20m, having previously peaked at €27m.

If Todibo were to go for around that fee, Barcelona would recoup only around half of what is suggested, going someway to alleviating their problems but not the solution they might have wished for.