Contrary to the previous reports that claimed that the official announcement of Nico Gonzalez’s move from Barcelona to FC Porto is only a matter of hours, journalist Alex Pintanel has claimed that the operation is not fully closed yet as there are still some details that need to be ironed out.
The journalist further adds that the official announcement may not even happen today.
We have reported before that Barcelona have reached an agreement with FC Porto worth €10 million for the transfer of the 21-year-old midfielder. Interestingly enough, the team from Catalonia have also included a buy-back option for the future.
It is believed that the player, who spent the previous season on loan at Valencia, will sign a four-year contract with the Portuguese side and the deal only went through after the player gave the green light to the transfer.
Nico has always maintained that he would love to stay and succeed at Barcelona, but to get into the starting XI would have been extremely difficult next season considering the current roster. This is why everyone involved decided to reach the middle ground.
Earlier it was reported that the delay from Porto’s end was happening because of their persisting problems with the Financial Fair Play regulations, which is why they were avoiding a direct transfer.
But now that the books are more or less balanced, they have decided to sign him permanently and have allowed Barcelona to insert a repurchase option.
For what it is worth, a number of La Liga teams wanted to acquire Nico, including Valencia themselves and Real Betis, but at Porto, the 21-year-old will get the opportunity to play in the UEFA Champions League.
At this very moment, Barcelona and Porto are locked in to complete the final details of the transfer and it is expected that this will not take a significant amount of time. However, an official announcement is unlikely to arrive today as per Alex Pintanel.
