FC Barcelona And Manchester City Reach New Bernardo Silva Transfer Agreement

FC Barcelona and Manchester City have reached a new transfer agreement for the sale of Bernardo Silva.

According to Gerard Romero, who was one of the leading voices on Barca’s recent pursuits of Raphinha and Jules Kounde, the two clubs have agreed a fee between €50-55mn ($51-56mn) for the Portuguese international, who joined City in 2017 from AS Monaco.

In Silva’s homeland, Pedro Almeida also revealed news of the agreement.

Romero adds that Silva and his family have already planned to visit potential new houses in the Catalan capital, and should Barca get the deal over the line, he would be their sixth big signing of the summer.

After paying considerable amounts of money for Robert Lewandowski (€45 million/$46 million), Raphinha (€58 million/$59.3 million) and Kounde (€55 million/$66.6 million), Barca have also landed Franck Kessie and Andreas Christensen on free transfers.

Silva is Barca first head coach Xavi Hernandez’s last remaining transfer target in the current window.

And while it was previously thought that the Blaugrana would have to sell Frenkie de Jong to facilitate Silva’s move, reports in recent days have suggested that Barca will be able to have both players in their squad with Romero describing this as president Joan Laporta’s “dream”.

All this has been made possible by the activation of ‘economic levers’ totaling roughly €776mn ($793mn), which have seen Barca sell 25% of their television rights for the next 25 years and 50% of Barca Studios.

Yet registering their new players appears to be problematic with just a few days to spare until the Catalans kick off their La Liga campaign against Rayo Vallecano at home on Saturday.

Last week, City manager Pep Guardiola effectively opened the door to Silva leaving the Etihad giants when he pointed out that he wouldn’t keep stars against their will.

“I would love for Bernardo to continue, but… I don’t know what will happen,” the former Barca legend admitted.

“Players sometimes have a desire and I’m not a person to stop [another] person’s desire. I want Bernardo to stay here, 100%. We will see what happens,” he added.

What seems to have happened is that Barca have found a way to get the deal over the line and have now completed their squad for the 2022/2023 season while requiring the likes of De Jong to take salary cuts.