While such a policy has been forced because of their strained finances, FC Barcelona have been greatly successful with their signing of free agents in the last few years. The club has made some great acquisitions for free and has even turned up a profit on some of them.
For instance, Ilkay Gundogan, Andreas Christensen, and Franck Kessie all joined the Catalan club without any fee, as they had run down their contracts. Gundogan and Christensen have both been highly successful at Barcelona, while the Blaugranes have gotten a good profit by selling Kessie to a Saudi club this summer.
Barcelona monitoring Ndidi
With this accomplishment, the club hopes to continue with this philosophy and is keeping an eye on a number of high-quality players whose contracts expire at the conclusion of the season. According to SPORT, one of these players on the Catalans’ radar is Leicester City midfielder Wilfred Ndidi.
Ndidi mostly serves as a pivot in front of the defence, and his power and passing ability make him a highly sought-after player.
The 26-year-old Nigerian’s contract is going to end next summer, and he was already approached by several European sides the past summer as his team got relegated from the Premier League.
Bayern got into negotiations with Leicester for his signing but found the price too high for a player whose contract was expiring in a year. Atletico Madrid and Juventus were also interested in him and approached his entourage.
Barcelona have been monitoring him for some time, and the Blaugranes already made an approach for him some years ago when Leicester demanded €70 million for him.
With his quality, experience, and being free at the end of the season, there is no doubt that Ndidi will be one of the most sought-after players next summer and Barcelona will have to compete with several big clubs to get his signature.