Barcelona have suffered a major blow in their pursuit of Arsenal star Thomas Partey as he is unlikely to return to Spain in 2025.
Thomas Partey is expected to be on the move next summer. The former Atletico Madrid star will be a free agent and he will have the freedom to choose his next destination but according to Matteo Moretto via CaughtOffside, the Arsenal star is unlikely to join Barcelona. The transfer expert has ruled out a return to Spain in the summer of 2025.
Partey made a name for himself while playing for Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid. After a five-year-long spell with their first team, he made the move to Arsenal towards the end of 2020. It didn’t take him long to establish himself in their starting XI and he became one of their mainstays in no time.
The Ghanaian international was one of the key players for Arsenal in the 2022/23 season as they challenged Manchester City for the league title until the very end. While a hamstring injury kept him out of the thick of things for the majority of last season, Partey remains an integral part of their first team having started in each of their first three Premier League outings this season.
While the 31-year-old defensive midfielder remains an important part of their first team, his future is not certain by any means. Partey’s current contract runs out in less than 10 months and having signed Mikel Merino from Real Sociedad, it looks like the Gunners won’t push to renew the former Atletico midfielder’s contract.
Partey won’t be returning to La Liga
He will be allowed to leave the club as a free agent once his deal runs out after the end of the 2024/25 season. Partey still has quite a few years left in him and he can surely feature a top club in Europe. While the Ghanaian international has been linked with Atletico Madrid and Barcelona, Moretto has ruled that out.
The transfer expert wrote in his column for CaughtOffside: “Personally, I don’t see Arsenal midfielder Thomas Partey returning to Spain, at least not to Atletico Madrid, and probably not to Barcelona either. Put simply, things did not end well with Atletico before he went to Arsenal, and he is not on the agenda for Barcelona,”
“During the course of the summer, he had approaches from Italy and from Saudi Arabia, perhaps even other Premier League sides. Barcelona and Atletico have both turned to the free agent market in the past, and Partey is only four months away from being able to sign a deal, but honestly, I don’t see him going to either of these two teams, at least as things stand currently.”
Partey didn’t part ways with Atletico Madrid in the best of ways which means a return to Simeone’s team is already off the books. Barcelona surely seems to be an interesting option as the Catalan giants have been on the lookout for a new defensive midfielder.
But, Moretto believes Partey won’t return to Spain. Even if he does, it is unlikely to be Barcelona even though the Spanish giants are in a financial crisis and they have been looking at the free-agent market to level up their squad. The 31-year-old has been linked with the Catalan giants but he is not on the agenda of Hansi Flick’s team.
