FC Barcelona put €14 million price tag on out-of-favour La Masia graduate Munir El Haddadi.
As per a report in Spanish publication Don Balon, Munir, who spent the previous campaign at Valencia CF on loan, isn’t a part of Ernesto Valverde’s plans for the coming season and Barcelona President Josep Maria Bartomeu is looking to offload the youngster for €14 million.
The report goes to state that the Spaniard’s potential suitors have laughed off Bartomeu’s valuation of the out-of-favour winger. Schalke 04, West Ham United, Southampton and Crystal Palace have all reportedly tabled bids for Munir, but they are all in the region of €8-10 million.
Munir came through the youth ranks at FC Barcelona and was handed his Barcelona debut by Luis Enrique in August 2014. He would go on to rack up 10 goals and 10 assists in 45 appearances for the Blaugrana over the course of the next 3 seasons, before being shipped out on loan to Valencia.
It was yet another tumultuous season for Valencia, who went through four different managers over the course of the previous campaign. As a result, Munir was used in a variety of different positions across attack – on the right and left wings and also on occasion as a center forward.
However, the 21-year-old, who has 2 seasons left on his current contract, still managed to have a decent outing last season with Los Che, scoring 7 goals and registering 3 assists in 36 games across all competitions, finishing as the club’s joint-top scorer alongside Rodrigo.
However, helping them retain their top flight status and becoming the club’s top scorer doesn’t seem to be enough for new Barcelona manager Ernesto Valverde and the Spaniard looks set to be on his way out of Camp Nou, as the 53-year-old looks to build Barcelona in his own image.
Opportunities would, no doubt, be difficult to come by at Barcelona, given the firepower in their ranks. Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar show no signs of slowing down and while reinforcements are required to ease the burden on the attacking trio, Munir hasn’t quite reached that level.
So a move away seems like the best possible alternative for Munir going forward. He is undoubtedly talented and Barcelona will perhaps be looking to add a buyback option to the terms of his sale, so that he may one day return to Catalonia a much better player.
Besides, Barcelona have other areas of the pitch to focus on, and they will need more funds to acquire some top quality personnel. The Catalan giants recently extended Lionel Messi’s future at the club, giving him a significant increase in his already exorbitant wages and they will need a small fortune to try and balance their books as much as possible.
