Barcelona have been left red-faced after they were forced into cutting Memphis Depay’s wage packet, only three weeks after signing the player.
Depay was impressive for the Netherlands at Euro 2020 having resurrected his career in the French Ligue 1 with Lyon after his underwhelming 18 month stay at Manchester United.
The Dutchman has long been linked with a move to Barcelona and those links were proven to be true when he completed a free transfer from Lyon.
But while he has secured his dream move, the financial situation that Depay has encountered at Camp Nou has already affected his bank account.
Under the former boardroom regime, debts skyrocketed, with Barca left staring down a financial black hole. And bew president Joan Laporta is trying to move on players who arrived on big wages for massive transfer fees.
That has left the club in deep trouble financially, with the current situation meaning they are unable to register any new players.
Due to the strict salary cap rules in La Liga, Barcelona need to offload players or cut their wage payments in order to get under their cap.
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Laporta must raise a fee in the region of £200m to be able to bring any players in, or give those players out of contract another deal.
That means that Memphis Depay, Sergio Aguero, Eric Garcia and Emerson Royal cannot officially play for the club after moving to the club this summer.
In order to get under the cap and allow those signings to play for the Spanish club, Laporta has turned to cutting his players’ wages.
According to Goal, Depay was originally offered a contract worth £6m a year, with a number of performance-related add-ons in the deal. It has now been reduced by 30% to around £4.4m per year, due to the financial difficulties at Barcelona.
