Copy the Spanish team s wings, Barcelona officially launches the "Nico Offensive"

Written by/Hanbing After the European Cup last year, Barcelona Chairman Laporta announced in a high-profile manner that he would copy the invincible wings of the Spanish team in Barcelona, ​​and the first target of signing is Yamal's left-hand partner Nico Williams. Unfortunately, Barcelona suffered continuous economic "leverage" failure at that time, and even the registration of first-team players became a problem. In the end, the deal was completed by buying Olmo and other senior executives such as Laporta, and Nico Williams was powerless.

However, last season, he won the Spanish domestic league, cup and Super Cup triple championships, and the Champions League entered the semi-finals, and Barcelona's revenue increased significantly in the season. The financial situation has improved significantly, creating conditions for Barcelona's "Spanish Biwing" plan to restart. After full assessment last weekend, Laporta approved the action to introduce Nico. Nico's 58 million euro termination fee (including tax of about 62 million) is no longer an insurmountable obstacle for Barcelona today.

Although Bayern and Arsenal are also pursuing Nico, players prefer to meet with their friends Yamal and Valde and are willing to accept Barcelona's annual salary conditions for 12 million euros before tax last year. Changes in players' wishes are the key to accelerating the transaction. Barcelona sports director Deco also met with Nico's agent Teinta and first reached a preliminary agreement on the player's personal terms. Although Barcelona also has two alternatives to Liverpool's Dias and Manchester United's Rashford, Ruiz's offer is as high as 80 million euros. Whether Rashford can quickly integrate into La Liga is still a problem, and Nico is obviously the first choice target.

Like Werz, Bayern had contacted Nico's team two weeks ago and offered an annual salary offer far higher than Barcelona. Athletic Bilbao also offered contract renewal conditions for Nico in May, with an annual salary of 10 million euros before tax, which is the highest salary in the history of the Basque club. But Nico hopes to join Barcelona to win trophy and personal honors. However, the meeting between Deco and Teinta was exposed, which increased the difficulty of the transfer. Athletic Bilbao originally wanted the meeting to be kept confidential, but after it was exposed, the club felt that it was disgraceful and insisted that it had to activate a 58 million euro termination fee before it was willing to release the person.

In order to win Nico to make sure his feelings as soon as possible, Barcelona coach Frick personally called Nico to introduce his future plans in detail. Copying the midfield configuration of the Spanish national team is the core of Barcelona's future strategy. Barcelona already has three main players, Yamal, Pedri and Ormo, only Nico's last puzzle is left. The pursuit of younger and localization is Barcelona's basic direction, and the 22-year-old Spanish international Nico is obviously the ideal candidate. Compared with the market value of 70 million euros, Nico's termination fee of 58 million euros is no different from "picking up treasures".

The most core issue of introducing Nico is Barcelona's financial situation. rating agency DBRS has improved Barcelona's credit rating from stable to "positive", at least partly increasing the outside world's confidence in Barcelona's financial situation. In addition to the hundreds of millions of euros won last season, the annual renewal contract revenue with Nike is increasing significantly. Barcelona will return to the refurbished Camp Nou Stadium in August this year. Although the initial available capacity is only 62,000, the game-day revenue will still be higher than Montsico Mountain Stadium.

2023/24 season does not count player transfer income, Barcelona has achieved profits before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization for the first time in the past four seasons, and is expected to reach 90 million euros in the 2024/25 season. After the Camp Nou Stadium, which can accommodate 98,000 people in the 2026/27 season is fully put into use, the season's revenue can reach 1.1 billion euros. The total salary of Barcelona's first-team team and the club's annual revenue share will drop from 70% to 55%, further freeing up the salary space for signing Nico and other strong players.

Barcelona has purchased Espanyol's 24-year-old young goalkeeper Juan Garcia and activated a 25 million euro termination fee (a total of 26.3415 million tax included) to replace Terstegen. Athletic Bilbao insists on paying the termination fee in one lump sum, which is a challenge for Barcelona. However, Barcelona earned 6 million by selling Valais (Como Serie A), and Todibo and Moriba's second transfer income reached 8 million and 600,000 euros respectively. The second transfers of Mingesa, Marmore and Jugra will continue to bring benefits. Possible transfers such as Trincon, Rock, Dester, Pedrola, Alenia, and Hayes will also earn profits, while Langley and Terstegen will free up more salary space.

Barcelona, ​​which no longer needs to register for players, is not in a hurry to advance Nico's negotiations. The players' willingness to give Barcelona the capital to "bargain". After all, this summer is the last chance for Athletic Bilbao to get the best interests from Nico, who has two years left in the contract. Barcelona can even wait until the Asian tour from July 24 to August 4 before completing the negotiations. Barcelona will warm up with Kobe Victory Ship, FC Seoul and Daegu FC, earning millions of euros, further demonstrating the club's global influence and money-making ability.