{"id":74248,"date":"2026-08-22T16:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T16:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/74248\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T16:00:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T16:00:08","slug":"aston-villa-benfica-make-enquiry-for-barcelona-full-back-who-accepts-exit-fate-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/74248\/","title":{"rendered":"Aston Villa, Benfica make enquiry for Barcelona full-back who accepts exit fate – report"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alejandro Balde\u2019s future at FC Barcelona has been generating plenty of speculation throughout the summer transfer window. <\/p>\n

As already reported<\/a>, the coaching staff led by manager Hansi Flick had doubts about the 22-year-old. But the player and his representatives insisted that he had no intention of leaving the La Liga champions.<\/p>\n

However, with the transfer window approaching its final stretch, the situation has flipped completely as the La Masia graduate has changed their stance.<\/p>\n

Indeed, Balde has accepted that a departure is now very much a possibility<\/a> after the signing of Joao Cancelo earler this week.<\/p>\n

As such, Balde has given his agent, Jorge Mendes, the green light to use his contacts and find him a new club during the remaining 10 days of the summer window.<\/p>\n

First offers and inquiries<\/p>\n

Now, according to SPORT<\/a>, Aston Villa and SL Benfica have made their move, asking about Balde\u2019s situation and Barcelona\u2019s asking price for the 22-year-old left-back.<\/p>\n

\"AlejandroBalde set to depart. (Photo by Angel Martinez\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

However, the main obstacle will be Barcelona\u2019s financial demands. The report suggest that the club could seek a fee of \u20ac40-45 million for the defender. Those figures now appear extremely difficult to achieve, except potentially in the Saudi league.<\/p>\n

Benfica are looking for two defenders, a centre-back and a left-back, but their initial proposal for Balde would be unlikely to exceed \u20ac20 million. <\/p>\n

Barcelona could therefore seek additional incentives, future-sale clauses or another creative structure to increase the value of the deal.<\/p>\n

In the Premier League, Aston Villa are also looking for a high-level left-back. At present, however, the English club does not have the budget available to make the move. <\/p>\n

\"AlejandroNo shortage of interest. (Photo by Daniela Porcelli\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

A sale of one of their players could generate the funds needed to pursue someone like Balde.<\/p>\n

Manchester United in the fray?<\/p>\n

As has become common whenever Barcelona have a player on the market, Manchester United has also been mentioned as a potential suitor for the 22-year-old left-back.<\/p>\n

While there has been some discussion between the Red Devils and Mendes, for now, there has been no sign of a concrete approach from Michael Carrick\u2019s side.<\/p>\n

The list of interested clubs is expected to grow in the coming days. Balde still has a strong reputation, but Barcelona want a significant transfer fee, which could complicate matters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alejandro Balde\u2019s future at FC Barcelona has been generating plenty of speculation throughout the summer transfer window. As…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8911,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[933,5016,92,222,4965,223],"class_list":["post-74248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-barcelona","tag-alejandro-balde","tag-aston-villa","tag-barcelona","tag-barcelona-news","tag-benfica","tag-fc-barcelona"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74248","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=74248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}