u/neeskens88

The Catalan club had two offers rejected and is expected to send a third soon. The value of the second offer exceeds the €460,000 paid for Keira Walsh – the biggest signing in Barça's history.

Kerolin's current contract with the English team runs until 2028. This information was initially reported by journalist Victoria Leite and confirmed by ge .

Kerolin welcomes the move, and City are not opposed to selling her. The parties are currently working to find common ground and finalize the transfer.

Is this a replacement for Salma?

I'm tired of reading misinformation and misconceptions, so it seems like it's time to explain the situation with Barcelona to people a little bit.

>Barcelona should pay their players more.

We currently have available information for the 2024/25 season (data for last season will be published later):

1. Chelsea F.C. Women wage bill - €16.7 million
2. OL Lyonnes 23/24 wage bill (includes other expenses) - €15.5 million (I haven't found any info for last season. If anyone knows where to find it, please let me know)
3. Barça Femeni - €14.3 million
4. Arsenal W.F.C. - €13 million
5. Man City W.F.C. - €10 million

As we can see, Barcelona is in the top-3 in terms of wages paid to players. Chelsea is slightly ahead, but this is understandable: that season, they signed Girma, Walsh, Bronze, and others to an already stellar squad.

>They need to pay more, otherwise no one will finish their career there.

Barcelona is not a "retirement home". Even club legends like Iniesta, Xavi, and Busquets didn't finish their careers there.

>The departure of the stars freed up so much cap space. They must re-sign this player or sign that player.

It doesn't work this way. Yes, several players left, but at the same time, Coll and Pina were re-signed, Serrajordi and Camara received first-team contracts, and they are working on re-signing CGH. And there are seven more players whose contracts expire in 2027 and whose re-signing will need to be worked on.

>After winning each tournament, and especially the Champions League, they received bonuses for winning and from Nike. Now there's money to increase the salary cap.

First and most importantly, the players receive a share of these bonuses. And secondly, even the most successful clubs don't budget for winning tournaments—reaching certain stages, yes, but not winning. So these bonuses will never serve to increase the players' base salaries.

>How can they let Salma go, such a young and promising player, an undisputed starter for this team, who has already finished in the top three of the Ballon d'Or twice.

1. She is not an undisputed starter for this team. Yes, she has all the talent in the world to dominate, but still way too inconsistent.
2. Never in her career was she a top-3 player in the world, not even a top-10 player imo (someone else might have a different opinion, I won't argue).
3. Ballon d'Or rankings are highly subjective and often inaccurate. Many believe Russo or Caldentey should have won last year, or CGH the year before. You can also find absurdities in the men's Ballon d'Or—how did Salah finish above Raphinha, or Cole Palmer above Pedri?
4. And if the rumors are true that her agent is asking for a salary of around a million (two different sources have already reported this), then it becomes obvious why they're letting her go. Sayōnara

>Marc Vives, Sports Director of Women's Football at Barcelona, ​​is failing at his job. Markel Zubizarreta did a much better job.

Markel hasn't had to deal with Kang lol. Barcelona can compete financially with Arsenal, Chelsea, Man City, and so on. But when someone comes in and starts paying absurd amounts, Barça can't do anything about it. If they pay one player more than market value, the other players' agents will come and demand the same, and the wage bill will skyrocket. The men's team already went through this during Bartomeu's presidency, thank you, but it doesn't need to happen again.

>And in general, the current management doesn't care about the women's team.

I have no idea where this opinion comes from. Even in the worst years financially for the club, they didn't cut spending on this section. Under Laporta, revenues increased fivefold from 4.5 million to 22.5 million. And that's not the maximum; there's still significant potential for matchday income: they're building a separate dressing room for the women's team at the Camp Nou, which is currently being renovated, and they'll play there more often once construction is complete. Who knows, maybe they'll even play there permanently. Player salary costs in 2020 were 4 million; now, according to the latest data, they're 10 million more.

The problem is that "a player" willing to pay above-market prices has entered the market. Why isn't Arsenal, with the highest revenues in women's football, offering wages like Michelle Kang's clubs? And the second problem, which affects all clubs in Spain, is that Spain's financial regulations, known as La Liga's Economic Control or Squad Cost Limit (SCL), apply to the entire club as a single entity, not separately. La Liga limits how much a club can spend on wages and squad costs across all of its sporting sections: men’s teams and women’s teams- first team, reserve team, and youth categories, other indoor/non-football professional sections - e.g., basketball, handball, etc. That's why so few clubs invest in women's teams, even if they wanted to. And when the club like Barcelona has problems, priority is given to the men's team, because this is the club's main team, no matter how unpleasant it may be for anyone to accept this.

>They pay this amount for the transfer of a player for the men's team or pay this salary to that player, but they cannot allocate money for the women's team.

Please stop. The men's team generates over a billion in revenue, the women's team just over 20 million. That's your difference in salaries and transfer fees.

>They plan to continue to save money and sign only young players for the women's team.

We still need to see how the transfer window plays out. And don't forget that Mapi Leon arrived at 22, Patry Guijarro was 17, Esmee was 20, Coll was 18, and Alexia Putellas was 18 when she returned to the club, not to mention those who came from the academy.

That's all for now. Thanks to everyone who read and discovered something new.

According to insiders Jake Fischer and Marc Stein, Chicago Bulls began interviewing head coaching candidates this week. The finalists include Portland Trail Blazers interim head coach Tiago Splitter , Atlanta Hawks assistant coach Ryan Schmidt, and Minnesota Timberwolves assistant coach Micah Nori.

It is noted that Nori and Splitter are also finalists for the Blazers head coach job.