Barcelona have announced the signing of Eric Garcia, who becomes the second arrival at Camp Nou this summer after Sergio Aguero.
Barcelona have made an official statement to confirm that they have secured the services of Eric Garcia on a five-year deal. The Spanish international becomes the second signing of the summer transfer window for the Catalan giants, who announced Sergio Aguero’s transfer on Monday, with the move set to be officially completed on July 1.
Home is where the heart is. pic.twitter.com/FQRV2L4n4R
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) June 1, 2021
Eric Garcia began his youth footballing career with Barcelona, spending nine years at the club’s famed La Masia academy before calling it quits in the summer of 2017. Searching for a clearer pathway to first-team action, the youngster joined Manchester City, where he completed his footballing education before breaking into their first-team setup in 2018.
Garcia’s progress at Manchester City, though, was slow, even though he is rated quite highly by Pep Guardiola. Despite that, he only managed to turn out 12 times for the Citizens in the season gone by as the likes of Ruben Dias, Aymeric Laporte, John Stones and even Nathan Ake were ahead of him in the pecking order.
That has not hampered Garcia’s progress with the Spanish national side, where he is now a regular. Meanwhile, at club level, his Manchester City future had been uncertain for the longest time, in spite of Guardiola’s pleas for him to stay put at the Etihad. And, for over a year now, his next adventure has seemingly been a return to Barcelona.
Barcelona did indeed try to sign Garcia in each of the last two transfer windows and their interest in the 20-year-old is understandable as well. With Gerard Pique in the twilight of his career, it is imperative that the Blaugrana lay down a succession plan for their veteran defender.
To that end, Eric Garcia has been a viable target for Barcelona, where he can compete with Ronald Araujo and Oscar Mingueza to be the long-term solution in defence. In recent times, a move has seemed to be a mere formality, with Garcia himself confirming the free transfer last week.
The Bosman move has now been confirmed by Barcelona, with the Spanish international their second summer signing after the arrival of Sergio Aguero on Monday – also on a free transfer. Garcia has committed the next five years of his career to Barcelona, who have set a €400 million buyout clause in his contract. It will now be interesting to see how he fares in the next stage of his fledgling career.
