FC Barcelona Beats Premier League To Surprise New Summer Signing

FC Barcelona has made a surprise new incoming summer signing as reported by Mundo Deportivo and Fabrizio Romano, who cited anonymous sources.

Coming off a domestic treble-winning season, the Catalans have been busy in the market preparing for 2025/2026 under head coach Hansi Flick, and trying to go one better than a Champions League semifinal loss to Inter Milan.

Wojciech Szczesny was impressive when coaxed out of retirement to take over from the injured Marc-Andre ter Stegen, but shipping seven goals across the two legs of the latter-mentioned fixture pushed President Joan Laporta and Sporting Director Deco to take action.

While Szczesny has been already signed a one-year extension which was announced on Monday, Barca activated Joan Garcia’s $29.3 million (€25 million) release clause at Espanyol which will probably push Ter Stegen out of his club since 2014.

Further up the pitch, Barca was left with egg on its face when Nico Williams appeared to have agreed terms with it but then penned a ten-year contract extension at Athletic Club.

This means that the chase for a left winger will now probably be a two-horse race between Liverpool FC’s Luis Diaz and Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford.

On the other flank, reports from Fabrizio Romano and SPORT say that Barca has landed Swedish teenage sensation Roony Bardghji with the Copenhagen wideman having already passed his medical to provide back up and positional rivalry to fellow Moroccan descent prodigy Lamine Yamal.

Barca is seemingly not done there in making reinforcements, and has sealed Croat midfielder Lovro Chelfi from NK Kustosija according to Romano.

Mundo Deportivo explains that Chelfi is “considered one of the emerging jewels of Croatian football” and had “also aroused the interest of several Premier League clubs” prior to deciding that he will continue his development in Catalonia.

Once on Dinamo Zagreb’s books like Dani Olmo, Chelfi is expected to join the reserve outfit known as Barca Atletic though he might get a chance to embark on the first team’s preaseon tour of Asia and possibly stay in the senior squad if he manages to impress Flick.

Making the step to FC Barcelona’s first team won’t be easy for the youngster

With competition from the likes of Olmo, Gavi, Pedri and Fermin Lopez to name a few, getting attacking midfield minutes in the FC Barcelona first team won’t be easy for Chelfi. This has already led to the departure of Noah Darvich, with Pablo Torre also reported to be on his way to Mallorca soon.