Over a week into the summer transfer window, Barcelona have been able to part ways with just one player thus far in the form of Samuel Umtiti, whose contract was mutually terminated.
The Blaugrana have been making serious efforts to try and offload players but have not had much success on that front. One of the stars who is being linked with an exit is midfield Franck Kessie.
The 26-year-old midfielder has been at the club for only a year and failed to carve out a spot for himself in Xavi Hernandez’s regular starting XI. With Ilkay Gundogan’s arrival, his minutes are likely to take a further hit.
That, coupled with the club’s need to generate revenue, has led to Kessie being made available for transfer. And even though the Ivorian prefers to stay put, the possibility of him leaving is not completely off the table.
Amidst this, AS is reporting that Kessie already has received a ‘tempting’ offer from Saudi Arabia to leave Barcelona. As iterated earlier, while the midfielder’s preference would be to stay at the club, he is understood to be open to studying any good proposals that come his way.
Kessie’s contract with Barcelona runs until the summer of 2026. Amidst rising speculations over his future, his agent George Atangana met with club officials earlier this week to discuss the matter.
Manager Xavi Hernandez was cryptic about the midfielder’s situation when quizzed about it in a press conference yesterday as he said: “I spoke to him, yes, he already knows the situation, which is private and I will not make it public.”
Considering Kessie joined for free, his sale would mean that any fee Barcelona receive can be chalked down as net profit in the books, which would help them with FFP.
Kessie is attracting suitors from several clubs in Saudi Arabia. There had been reports of interest from Al Ahli and Al Hilal in the recent past, with Al Nassr also entering the race recently.
With an attractive proposal seemingly on the table, only time will tell if Kessie is willing to accept and move to the Middle East this summer.
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