{"id":74276,"date":"2026-08-22T17:47:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T17:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/74276\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T17:47:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T17:47:09","slug":"barcelona-out-of-favour-midfielder-stuck-between-a-rock-and-a-hard-place","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/74276\/","title":{"rendered":"Barcelona out-of-favour midfielder stuck between a rock and a hard place"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Barcelona have been largely successful in offloading unwanted stars going into the new season, as made evident by the departures of Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Ronald Araujo and others.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, the club have still not been able to resolve the future of Marc Casado, who is certainly not a part of Hansi Flick\u2019s plans for the new season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With the season already underway, Casado faces an important couple of weeks ahead as he looks to resolve his future before the early September deadline.<\/p>\n<p>Saudi Arabia remain interested<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As reported by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sport.es\/es\/noticias\/barca\/casado-espada-pared-133563518\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">SPORT<\/a>, Casado remains a key topic in Saudi Arabia, Al Hilal and Al Ahli more than keen on bringing him to the Middle East.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787420826_300_birmingham-city-v-fc-barcelona-pre-season-friendly-5-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Marc Casado of FC Barcelona\" class=\"wp-image-208174\"  \/>Casado\u2019s future remains unresolved. (Photo by Alex Livesey\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, there are two distinct problems. For one, the player wants to <a href=\"https:\/\/barcauniversal.com\/exit-bound-barcelona-midfielder-turns-down-saudi-arabia-option-as-he-eyes-top-level-challenge\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">strictly remain in Europe<\/a> and continue his progress after an impressive breakthrough at Barcelona.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Secondly, the interest from Saudi Arabia hasn\u2019t materialised into a formal offer, which is why Casado hasn\u2019t been able to actually consider a switch to the Middle East either.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Barcelona, for their part, are ready to part ways with Casado on a permanent deal, having already roped in Rodri as the main defensive midfield figure.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But the club are not ready to let him go for cheap and value the player somewhere around \u20ac30-40 million. <\/p>\n<p>Not part of Barcelona\u2019s plans<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Regardless of what happens with Casado\u2019s future, it has been made clear by the coaching management that the player is not part of the plans for the season.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/fc-barcelona-v-valencia-cf-laliga-ea-sports-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Marc Casado of FC Barcelona\" class=\"wp-image-192030\"  \/>Casado has fallen out of favour at Barcelona. (Photo by David Ramos\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Casado doesn\u2019t train with the first-team anymore, much like Hector Fort, who is <a href=\"https:\/\/barcauniversal.com\/barcelona-out-of-favour-youngster-chooses-his-next-destination-as-exit-looms-report\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">closing in on a loan move<\/a> to Borussia Dortmund. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Recently, Barcelona also assigned Casado\u2019s number 17 kit to new signing Anthony Gordon, which was the final blow for the Spaniard.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Interestingly, a move to Dortmund might make a world of sense for Casado as the German giants do require a new midfielder this season. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, Barcelona\u2019s hefty price-tag will likely prove too much for the Black and Yellows, who have already spent over \u20ac100 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Barcelona have been largely successful in offloading unwanted stars going into the new season, as made evident by&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53039,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[92,222,223,1866,1437],"class_list":["post-74276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-barcelona","tag-barcelona","tag-barcelona-news","tag-fc-barcelona","tag-marc-casado","tag-saudi-arabia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74276","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=74276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}