Barcelona want to secure €120m agreement that would help ease financial woes
Similar to how they struck a new agreement with Nike last year, Barcelona want to secure better terms with Spotify, as MD have reported. The music streaming platform, who have been the main sponsors for the men's and women's sides since 2022, see their deal with the La Liga champions expire next summer.
Image via Marca
Barcelona are at a disadvantage in this situation
Currently, Barcelona receive approximately €75m per year from Spotify (€65m/year base plus bonuses (€70m total), as well as separate €5m/year payment for naming rights at the Camp Nou). However, there is a desire from club officials that the kit sponsorship is now worth €120m, which is almost double of what they are receiving now.
The problem for Barcelona is that they are not in an advantageous position on this matter, given that Spotify can unilaterally extend their existing agreement until 2030 – and by doing so, they would only pay a total of €80m/year, and it can be extended further to 2034, where the total payment per year would be €90m.
Barcelona believe that they are much more marketable nowadays due to having stars such as Lamine Yamal, Pedri and Raphinha, as well as Femeni stars Aitana Bonmati and Alexia Putellas. This is their justification for believing that kit sponsorship should be valued at €120m.
It remains to be seen whether Barcelona are able to seek a new agreement with Spotify, but they are not in the best position when it comes to negotiations, which are expected to take place in the coming months.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Blackburn Rovers told what to expect from 'powerhouse' Lewis Miller
What type of player is Lewis Miller? What are his strengths and weaknesses? He's a powerhouse, first and foremost. He was originally signed as a 21-year-old right-back from A-League side Macarthur FC, and gradually established himself in the first team under the last two managers. Last season, injury to other centre-backs prompted David Gray to move him into Hibs' back three, as part of a 3-4-1-2 formation. He has the attributes to play both as a full-back/wing-back and as a centre back. Miller is quick and strong, likes to get forward, and has proven an occasional goal threat. As a centre-back, he can draw on his full-back experience to offer something a little different - namely being comfortable stepping into advanced areas with the ball, underlapping the full-backs or defending out wide. His aggressiveness and recovery pace were key to Hibs' system. He still has plenty of development to go, however. Concentration was an issue at times, although this improved last season. He can be a little erratic in possession, and has been prone to being caught on the ball in dangerous areas. Under a good coaching team last season, however, he made significant strides, and Gray described him as 'very coachable'. What is the Hibs fans' view on losing him? I suspect he might be one of those players whose true value only becomes apparent after they've gone. Miller has split opinion, albeit I'd say the verdict on him by the end of last season was majority positive. Most supporters probably recognise that given his contract situation, this is the right time to sell. But I think it will become apparent that, despite his inconsistency, Miller's mix of attributes will be difficult to replace, and even his current doubters will soften on him. Has there been a lot of interest in him this summer? Yes, I believe that as well as Blackburn, Charlton Athletic were also interested. His physical profile, potential for development, and contract situation will have alerted plenty of clubs. Do you think a fee of around £1m is fair? Does it represent value for either club? I think so. Hibs are making a significant profit on a player who they could have lost for nothing in June were it not for the one-year extension option in his contract. Given he would have been free to sign a pre-contract elsewhere in January, I feel the club will be happy to agree a seven-figure package. Do you think he'll adapt to the physicality and intensity of the Championship? Yes. Miller's game is based on his pace and power, so I'd be surprised if he struggled with that side of the game. The Scottish Premiership has its own unique physical demands, and I've seen players coming in the opposite direction from the Championship struggle with it. Miller has other areas to improve on, but he should be able to handle himself physically. What is his character like from your dealings with him? He's not short on confidence. Some players shrink a little when they come to speak to the press but Miller had a laidback demeanour and was always happy to chat at length about anything he was asked. You can see that confidence on the pitch, too. He was never afraid of a confrontation or some back and forth with opponents.
New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
Farewell, Joao Felix: Twice a Blue but Chelsea rarely saw the best of you
No one has bothered to make a YouTube compilation of Joao Felix's second Chelsea spell. Historically, it has never been hard to find lovingly curated footage of the Portugal international, who has plenty of online devotees and whose flashy game is particularly well suited to highlights packages. Click on one, mute the inevitably awful soundtrack, and you can expect to see sharp stepovers, neat nutmegs, flamboyant flicks and deft drops of the shoulder. Advertisement Many of the clips will abruptly cut off at the precise moment when a goal or an assist might follow. (NARRATOR: it did not.) To balance out what is going to follow, it's worth noting that my colleague Jack Lang wrote a piece this year supporting Joao Felix. As he wrote, everyone sees something different in him. But it seems not even the most die-hard Joao Felix fans had the heart to cobble together the footage of him scoring the sixth goal in a 6-2 win against Wolverhampton Wanderers on his second Chelsea 'debut' last August, followed by perfunctory cup doubles against Panathinaikos, FC Noah and Morecambe. Even with the additional padding of assists against Barrow and Southampton, the video would struggle to break the three-minute mark. Much better to look forward with fresh hope to the next chapter of a bewildering career. Two and a half years after first arriving at Stamford Bridge from Atletico Madrid on loan, less than 12 months after signing permanently in a £44.5million transfer, and a little under six months since swapping west London for Milan on loan, Joao Felix has left Chelsea and the Premier League to join Saudi Pro League club Al Nassr in a deal worth £26.2m (€30m; $35.2m) as an upfront fee, with add-ons taking the total valuation to £43.3m (€50m; $57.2m). 'Once a blue, always a blue,' he replied with a blue heart emoji to Chelsea's post on Instagram, confirming his departure this week. Give yourself more credit, Joao, it's twice a Blue and once of Benfica, Atletico, Barcelona (another loan) and Milan. That is five clubs (soon to be six with Al Nassr) represented in seven professional seasons, and potentially north of £200m in transfer fees generated, putting him fourth in football's all-time cumulative list, behind Neymar, Romelu Lukaku and new club-mate Cristiano Ronaldo — all by the age of 25. Advertisement No other high-profile footballer in the world has followed such a strange career arc, one that for at least two years has been leading him, circuitously but inexorably, to Saudi Arabia. 'I'm here to spread joy,' he said, smouldering into the camera in his Al Nassr announcement video. 'Let's win together.' Watching him pose, stride, drape himself in a scarf and cross his arms in sultry silhouette, it is hard not to conclude that he has at least become world class at unveiling himself. "لنُحقّق الفـوز معًا"جواو فيليكس .. نصراوي 💛 — نادي النصر السعودي (@AlNassrFC) July 29, 2025 The fact that the jokes about Joao Felix come so easily is a little depressing. This was the Golden Boy winner in 2019, comfortably seeing off competition from Bundesliga sensations Jadon Sancho and Kai Havertz, and an emerging monster in Salzburg called Erling Haaland, to win the prize for Europe's best under-21 player. Atletico's decision to pay £113m to prise him from Benfica in July of that year after one phenomenal season was patently absurd, but the notion that he could blossom into their version of Lionel Messi or Ronaldo seemed very legitimate. Six years on, Joao Felix has played 15,429 career minutes across all competitions at club level, an average of 2,204 per season. He has never started more than 21 league matches in a single campaign, and never beaten either the 15 league goals or the seven league assists that he registered for Benfica in 2018-19 as a teenager. Admittedly, he did miss 168 days of the 2021-22 season through injury, a total of around 20 games for club and country, according to Transfermarkt. As recently as January 2023, when Chelsea talked themselves into paying a €11m loan fee to bring Joao Felix to Stamford Bridge for five months in a vain attempt to save a lost season, it was still easy to be convinced that his struggles were circumstantial. He had performed well enough to be named Atletico's player of the season in 2021-22, but maybe he was simply a poor fit there, an artist lost in Diego Simeone's team of soldiers. His straight red card for a studs-up tackle on Kenny Tete to kneecap 58 encouragingly bright minutes on his Chelsea debut instantly became a defining tragicomic image of the worst season of the club's modern history. It also remains by far the most memorable contribution of Joao Felix's two spells at Stamford Bridge, and of a Premier League career that extends to just 28 appearances, 14 of which were starts. Advertisement There was little in that first Chelsea stint that merited a sequel. Joao Felix showed more on loan at Barcelona in 2023-24, contributing 10 goals and five assists in 44 appearances across all competitions. Barcelona's finances were a barrier to a permanent deal the following summer, but they still found a way to sign Dani Olmo, another attacking midfielder. Reports that Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca did not want Joao Felix last summer were denied strongly by club officials, but his selection in the first half of last season spoke volumes; the former Atletico man started only three times in the Premier League against the three promoted (and soon to be relegated) sides: Leicester City, Southampton and Ipswich Town. 'It's a shame for Joao and I would like to give him more minutes in the Premier League, but we need defensive balance and we cannot play with Joao, Cole Palmer and Christopher Nkunku,' Maresca said when asked about Joao Felix's lack of league minutes in a press conference in November. 'I'd like to put all of them on the pitch, but then you need to defend, and you need the right balance.' Joao Felix's value was degraded rather than enhanced by an underwhelming loan spell at Milan and Chelsea's decision to sell this summer, for a much lower initial price than they paid a year ago, with the potential to recoup close to the full amount after add-ons, is more of an escape than a win. Even so, there is a sense that the move to Al Nassr might only be for the short term. Joao Felix is 25 and has signed a two-year contract, suggesting he is keeping one eye on a relatively swift return to Europe. And even if he stayed longer, Al Hilal did perform well at the Club World Cup. Saudi teams could compete for major honours in the future. He also still has plenty of fans as well as detractors within the game. Aston Villa head coach Unai Emery has never hidden his admiration, creating the potential for a more satisfying third act in the Premier League. Benfica would be the destination to warm the heart above all others, but as was demonstrated this summer, modern football's market forces generally push players away from such romantic reunions. There is no telling where Joao Felix's career will take him next, but the YouTube compilations documenting his time at Al Nassr have already begun to surface. Advertisement Two moments in particular from his first friendly appearance against Toulouse this week stand out. The first is Ronaldo running into Joao Felix at the back post as both men attempted to tap a low cross from the left into an empty net, in what felt like a friendly but firm introduction to Al Nassr's scoring pecking order. The second was Joao Felix receiving the ball just outside his own penalty area with a stepover to his right and then a quick shift to his left, winning a free kick with the kind of high-risk, low-reward skill move that perfectly divides his fans from his critics. Al Nassr fans can expect more of that for as long as he sticks around. Hopefully, they will get some memorable, and even consequential, goals and assists too. It will take more than empty highlights to make European football fans pine for Joao Felix's return.
New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
A Liverpool attack of Isak, Ekitike, Salah and Wirtz sounds amazing. But could it work?
The latest reboot of Marvel's Fantastic Four hit the cinemas last month and Liverpool's recruitment department, headed by Michael Edwards and Richard Hughes, seem to be taking inspiration from it. Florian Wirtz and Hugo Ekitike have both arrived from the Bundesliga at a combined cost of around £200million ($265m) to add new dimensions to Liverpool's attack, with Mohamed Salah's extension, signed towards the end of last season, ensuring he will remain as the team's talisman for another two years. Advertisement Yet their business does not seem to be done. Newcastle United's Alexander Isak remains a primary target, with The Athletic revealing that a formal bid has now been tabled and rejected. The Sweden international has made it clear that he wants to leave this summer. The idea of Salah, Wirtz, Ekitike and Isak in the same team is enough to have Liverpool fans drooling and will strike fear into opponents, but it is not a natural front four as it consists of, nominally, a No 10 (Wirtz), a right-winger (Salah) and two No 9s (Isak and Ekitike). So while it may look electric on paper, can those four actually play together? There is no doubt that each player has enough talent to thrive at Anfield. Only Ekitike can be considered a project, rather than a ready-made elite talent, even if Wirtz, 22, is younger than the 23-year-old Frenchman. Since arriving in 2017, Salah has shown that he can thrive with whoever lines up next to him in the front three. From Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane to Luis Diaz and Cody Gakpo, the Egypt international has continued to score goals and provide for others. Coming off his best season in a Liverpool shirt, the 33-year-old is showing no signs of slowing down and he should benefit from Wirtz's creativity behind him and linking up with a No 9 who has far more to their game than just an eye for goal. Salah may not replicate his numbers from last season, particularly because he will miss a portion of Liverpool's 2025-26 campaign when at the Africa Cup of Nations, but also because goals are likely to be shared more evenly with a prolific central striker next to him. Wirtz's quality is undeniable. It appears that no matter where he is positioned on the pitch, he will create. He has already shown a natural ability to drift into pockets of space, pick up possession and deliver precise passes to create goalscoring opportunities for his team-mates. Advertisement In the 5-0 friendly victory against Stoke City, he burst into space between midfield and defence before sliding a ball into Dominik Szoboszlai. A sliding challenge prevented him from shooting, but the ball fell for Darwin Nunez to finish. Either Ekitike or Isak would surely relish the prospect of such service. He also set up 16-year-old winger Rio Ngumoha, this time by slowing the game down and dictating the tempo. He lulled the Stoke defence into backing off after a one-two with Curtis Jones, before he slipped the ball to Ngumoha. Wirtz maintained his levels against Milan in Hong Kong, even as Liverpool lost 4-2. Here, a similar move as in the first example almost set up Harvey Elliott. The additional mobility of Isak or Ekitike in that scenario would probably have delivered a more positive result. Wirtz has taken no time to form a relationship with Salah. The pair have been filmed talking and laughing together in pre-season and that bond has already been shown on the pitch. In this example, they enjoyed passing to each other slightly too much. A front four involving three of Isak, Ekitike, Salah and Wirtz, plus Cody Gakpo on the left, feels like the correct balance for Arne Slot. The issue is who would play out of Isak and Ekitike. If the Swede does sign, for what would likely be a British record transfer fee of £120m or more, then surely he will be first choice. While Isak was used on the left when playing alongside Callum Wilson at Newcastle, his impact there was incomparable to when he led the line. It feels implausible that Liverpool would spend so much money on Isak, only to play him out of position. That is why the most important piece of the jigsaw puzzle could be Ekitike. Liverpool have not spent an initial £69m just so they can boast one of football's most expensive reserves. Advertisement His versatility to operate as a lone No 9, in a strike partnership or on the left wing was part of the attraction during the scouting process and should Isak be added, he will drop to second in the centre-forward pecking order. Ekitike's skill set — a graceful ball-carrier who likes to drift into the left channel and create for others — suggests he could operate from the left. It should not be forgotten that Liverpool's wingers were their primary goalscoring threats last season. However, there is very little evidence to support the idea Ekitike would be comfortable starting on the left. According to transfermarkt, he has played only four senior games as a left-winger during his career, and none since 2021. Isak's fitness record could be a factor. When Newcastle were last in the Champions League, the 2023-24 campaign, he managed 40 games but missed spells with groin injuries. Of his 78 Premier League starts, he was substituted in 43 of them. Ekitike would, therefore, be getting frequent minutes — even if it wouldn't be as many as hoped — while he adapts to the Premier League. Slot showed in the first half of last season with his treatment of Gakpo and Diaz (left wing), Andy Robertson and Kostas Tsimikas (left-back), and Szoboszlai and Jones (central midfield) that when he has two players in a position he feels he can rely on, he will rotate between them. The more radical option to get all four in the same team would be playing Isak and Ekitike together up front, which was seemingly Newcastle's original plan two weeks ago. Such a shift would probably require Wirtz to move into a left-sided role, with Salah remaining on the right in a 4-2-2-2 system. When speaking about options on the left, Slot mentioned Wirtz and Ngumoha as alternatives to Gakpo — but did not mention Ekitike. Advertisement The former Eintracht Frankfurt forward is familiar with a two-striker system, having flourished alongside Omar Marmoush in the first six months of last season. They provided and profited from each other's movement and creativity. 'I do what the coach asks me to do, but I like to do everything,' Ekitike told 'I can't define myself only as a striker (who likes) to finish: I like to play, I like to be in the game (and) create also. I can play alone and I like to play also with another striker. You need to adapt.' Partnerships are often formed because players complement each other. That won't be the case for Isak and Ekitike, as stylistically they are very similar. That's not to say it wouldn't work, but they might end up occupying each other's space in the early stages. Slot craves fluidity, so you could imagine Wirtz moving into the central spaces in that 4-2-2-2 while Ekitike makes runs into the channel, or Ekitike dropping deeper to link play centrally, which is another of his strengths. Gakpo will have plenty to say about all this. He finished as Liverpool's second top scorer last season, with 19 goals in all competitions, and the 26-year-old has made a very sharp start to pre-season, scoring against Preston North End and Milan. Wirtz in the No 10 role has already raised questions about who assumes the responsibility of doing some of Salah's running, never mind what happens in a two-forward system. It could place huge pressure on the double pivot axis of Ryan Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister, leaving them with even more space to cover. Szoboszlai was tasked with plenty of off-ball work last season and operated on the right of the two deeper midfielders against Yokohama, with Gravenberch moving over to the left. And all that is before we figure out where the integral Mac Allister fits in. Advertisement In his first year at Liverpool, Slot demonstrated his tactical acumen, and he will need it again to settle a much-changed squad as quickly as possible and make sure it does not look like he is fitting square pegs into round holes. (Top photos: Jan Kruger, Etsuo Hara, Alex Livesey,; design: Will Tullos)
