{"id":73450,"date":"2026-08-20T21:05:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T21:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/73450\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T21:05:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T21:05:10","slug":"joao-cancelo-returns-to-barcelona-on-free-transfer-until-2029","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/73450\/","title":{"rendered":"Joao Cancelo Returns to Barcelona on Free Transfer Until 2029"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Meknes \u2013 Barcelona have signed fullback Joao Cancelo on a free transfer through June 2029. The move marks a third spell at the club for the Portugal international.<\/p>\n<p>The 32-year-old first joined Barcelona on loan from Manchester City during the 2023-24 season. He returned for a second loan stint in January, this time coming from Saudi Pro League side Al-Hilal.<\/p>\n<p>The Portuguese defender has already played 65 games for the Catalan club, scoring six goals and providing nine assists.<\/p>\n<p>Cancelo reportedly agreed to terminate his contract with Al-Hilal by mutual consent prior to finalizing his return to Barcelona.<\/p>\n<p>Barcelona confirmed the move in an official <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/FCBarcelona\/status\/2090431696306884876?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">statement <\/a>on social media, saying: \u201cJo\u00e3o Cancelo and FC Barcelona have reached an agreement for the Portuguese footballer to join the Club,\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe full-back arrives as a permanent transfer basis and signs as a Bar\u00e7a player until 30 June 2029,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n<p>A product of Benfica\u2019s youth academy, Cancelo has built an internationally decorated career with stops at Valencia, Inter Milan, Juventus, Manchester City, Bayern Munich, Al-Hilal, and Barcelona.<\/p>\n<p>His impressive trophy collection includes three Premier League titles with Manchester City, a Serie A crown with Juventus in 2018-19, and a Bundesliga title with Bayern Munich in 2022-23.<\/p>\n<p>Cancelo featured in Portugal\u2019s squad at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, where his side was knocked out by Spain in the round of 16.<\/p>\n<p>Barcelona will aim to defend their LaLiga title under Hansi Flick.<\/p>\n<p>The club has bolstered its squad significantly this summer, bringing in 2024 Ballon d\u2019Or winner Rodri, England winger Anthony Gordon, and German forward Karim Adeyemi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Meknes \u2013 Barcelona have signed fullback Joao Cancelo on a free transfer through June 2029. The move marks&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[92,223,937],"class_list":["post-73450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-barcelona","tag-barcelona","tag-fc-barcelona","tag-joao-cancelo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}