FC Barcelona Legend Jordi Alba Decides To Leave Club: Reports

FC Barcelona legend Jordi Alba has decided to leave the club at the end of the season according to SPORT.

The left back’s current contract runs until June 2024. In recent weeks, however, El Chiringuito reported him as having already accepted an offer from Al-Hilal in Saudi Arabia with close friends Lionel Messi and Sergio Busquets.

In the same week Busquets revealed he would be leaving the club at the end of 2022/2023, Alba’s representatives were caught on camera holding a meeting with Barca top brass to discuss the player’s future by SPORT.

It was suggested that Alba’s camp would decide to move on, or take a significant salary reduction to continue at Camp Nou.

Alba is set to earn €38 million ($42 million) in 2023/2024 according to SPORT, with €20 million ($22 million) deferred because of agreements struck with former president Josep Bartomeu during the pandemic and his successor Joan Laporta as Barca tried to navigate Financial Fair Play limits and register new players and contracts.

Exactly a fortnight after the Spain international’s agents and Barca directors met, though, SPORT has reported that Alba has decided to continue his career elsewhere with an announcement expected from the club “in the coming hours”.

On Twitter, transfer market expert Fabrizio Romano tweeted that Alba will part ways with the Catalans and try a “new chapter” as a free agent.

This presumably means that Alba’s contract will be rescinded, with Laporta and his board having struck some sort of agreement regarding the remaining money that Alba was due to be paid.

If the reports are accurate, Alba, 34, will leave Camp Nou as a club legend.

Famously scouted by the La Masia academy as a nine-year-old in 1998 but then released in 2005 for being too small, he revitalised his career at Cornella before Valencia picked him up in 2006.

Then, in 2012, Barca bought Alba for €14 million ($15 million) before he enjoyed 11 years in the first team yielding six La Liga titles and a sole Champions League triumph as part of a treble in 2015.

Alba has faced positional rivalry from fellow La Masia pearl Alejandro Balde in recent times, but still served a useful purpose for former teammate and now manager Xavi Hernandez.

It now remains to be seen where Alba will head to next, with Saudi Arabia and Inter Miami in the MLS both possible destinations if he doesn’t stick around in La Liga.