Five ‘Untouchable’ Players At FC Barcelona Who Cannot Be Sold At Any Cost

FC Barcelona has a list of five untouchable players who are ‘nontransferable’ and cannot be sold by the club.

The Blaugrana have been warned by La Liga president Javier Tebas that they must take €200mn ($214mn) off their wage bill before 2023/2024. This needs to be done to navigate a strict salary cap, which resulted in Lionel Messi walking from the club in 2021.

The development has prompted suggestions that president Joan Laporta and his board will have to make a big sale in the summer. Yet according to SPORT, it will be none of the five players listed below, who are as follows.

Pedri

Bought for what seems to prove the bargain on the century each passing season, Pedri cost Barca a mere €5mn ($5.3mn) from Las Palmas in 2019 during an era when the club was squandering upwards of €120mn ($128mn) on the likes of Antoine Griezmann and Philippe Coutinho.

Promoted to the first team under Ronald Koeman in 2020, Pedri has become an integral part of the midfield who Barca would not sell for all the tea in China.

With a contract until 2026, the playmaker will be happy to extend when the time is right and is living his dream as a boyhood Barca fan.

Gavi

Even cheaper than Pedri was Gavi, who was brought through the La Masia academy after being signed from Real Betis as an 11-year-old.

Like his fellow Spain international and midfield partner Pedri, Gavi enjoyed a phenomenal rise to prominence after Koeman took a punt on him and went on to become the winner of the Golden Boy award.

Put simply, there would be uproar if Laporta even thought of selling Gavi or Pedri – who together are two of world football’s biggest young talents.

As they have €1bn ($1.064bn) release clauses in their contracts – with Gavi’s also running to 2026 – there is little to no chance of them being stolen away by a European rival either.

Ronald Araujo

For all the talk of the Uruguayan from near the Brazilian border being ‘Made in La Masia’ like Gavi, he cost a paltry €4.7mn ($5mn) from Boston River in his homeland.

Now the general in a defence that is on course to make history in La Liga after conceding just seven goals in 22 matches, Araujo is thought of as a future captain with a contract that runs until 2026 and would cost €1bn ($1.064bn) to get him out of.

Jules Kounde

The French World Cup finalist joins Araujo on the defensive line as a center back who operates as a right back.

He cost a reported €55mn ($58.5mn) from Sevilla last summer and, like Araujo, is already talked up as one of the game’s best defenders despite being just 24.

Secure until 2027, there is no way that Barca would consider offloading the multifunctional talent who will probably drift to the center to partner Araujo when Andreas Christensen ages.

Robert Lewandowski

Barca handed over $46.1 million to Bayern Munich for the goal-hungry Pole around the same time Kounde was landed.

Considering the club has no heir for the number ‘9’ yet, he is going nowhere anytime soon as they try to exact the best of the twilight years from the mid-30s veteran.

It makes sense that these are the players Barca deem ‘nontransferable’ and who cannot be sold by the club, but I would also probably throw Frenkie de Jong and Marc-Andre ter Stegen in there too to make a Magnificent Seven.

With this in mind, the big stars likely to be offloaded leading up to next term appear to be Ansu Fati and/or Ferran Torres, with fringe players such as Eric Garcia moved on too.