Fabrizio Romano, a journalist specialising in the transfer market, indicates that Barcelona have agreed to remove the option to buy from their loan agreement with Manchester City for Joao Cancelo in order to comply with the Financial Fair Play.

On the day when the Champions League group stage draw will be held and Barcelona’s top brass are in Monaco, the Spanish club are still negotiating with Manchester City for Joao Cancelo. The latest news has come from Fabrizio Romano, a specialist in the transfer market. According to his information, the ‘Cules’ have agreed to remove the option to buy from the loan deal.

It is to comply with ‘Financial Fair Play’, which probably did not look favourably on the Catalans having the possibility of signing a player of such importance for such a low price as was being speculated. One of the figures that came to light was 25 million euros, a value around 20 million euros less than the full-back’s market value, which had attracted a lot of attention.

This does not mean that a permanent move to the Catalan giants is ruled out. The source mentioned in the first paragraph adds, on his social networks, that the parties have agreed to talk again in the summer of next year, when the loan would end, to discuss a possible transfer. By then, Joan Laporta’s board may have their financial situation more settled.

Joao Cancelo spent half of last season on loan at Bayern Munich because he was unwilling to take a back seat at Manchester City. It is the same reason why, he has now given the green light to leave the Etihad Stadium again.