{"id":79462,"date":"2026-09-02T12:50:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T12:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/79462\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T12:50:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T12:50:08","slug":"barcelona-made-one-key-mistake-that-resulted-in-homegrown-star-staying-despite-exit-plans-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/79462\/","title":{"rendered":"Barcelona made one key mistake that resulted in homegrown star staying despite exit plans – report"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alejandro Balde remains a Barcelona player this season, but the left-back\u2019s situation could have looked very different had the club started working on his departure earlier in the summer.<\/p>\n

It is known that Barcelona were open to listening to offers for Balde and communicated that position to his representative at the beginning of the transfer window.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yet no serious operation developed until the closing stages, leaving too little time to turn interest into a completed transfer.<\/p>\n

For what it is worth, Balde himself never pushed for an exit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In fact, the 22-year-old, whose Barcelona contract runs until 2028, wanted to stay and believed he could still convince Hansi Flick that he deserved a more important role.<\/p>\n

However, Barcelona were looking for solutions, knowing that he does not feature prominently in Flick\u2019s plans.<\/p>\n

Barcelona left it too late<\/p>\n

The summer produced plenty of discussion about Balde\u2019s future, but very little concrete action.<\/p>\n

According to SPORT<\/a>, Barcelona only seriously began exploring possible destinations during the final ten days of the window, when the sporting department started looking for solutions that would also suit the player.<\/p>\n

One of the more ambitious ideas was a swap involving Federico Dimarco<\/a>, with Barcelona exploring a deal with Inter Milan.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AlejandroBarcelona could not find a suitable destination for Alejandro Balde. (Photo by Daniela Porcelli\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The Italian club rejected the proposal, while separate conversations with Manchester United also failed to develop into anything substantial<\/a>.<\/p>\n

By that stage, there was simply not enough time to build an already complicated transfer from scratch.<\/p>\n

The situation was made more difficult by Barcelona\u2019s own transfer constraints.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With the window closing and little room to explore options, the club could not force an outcome that had never properly taken shape earlier in the summer.<\/p>\n

Flick still has reservations about Balde<\/p>\n

The bigger issue is not necessarily Barcelona\u2019s failure to find a buyer. It is Flick\u2019s assessment of the player<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The German has never questioned Balde\u2019s natural ability, but what concerns Flick is whether Balde is consistently meeting the demands of his football.<\/p>\n

The coach places enormous importance on intensity, commitment and tactical discipline, and from his perspective, Balde has not yet reached the required level in those areas.<\/p>\n

That was reflected during pre-season. Balde received opportunities, but other options were prioritised in the full-back positions.<\/p>\n

\"LamineBarcelona were open to listening to offers for Balde. (Photo by Judit Cartiel\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Furthermore, Flick also values players capable of covering multiple roles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On that note, Xavi Espart fits that profile, while the manager pushed for Joao Cancelo, which further complicated Balde\u2019s route into the starting XI.<\/p>\n

As a result, a meeting between Flick and Balde in August ended with the coach advising the defender to look for regular football elsewhere.<\/p>\n

Staying could still work in Balde\u2019s favour<\/p>\n

Yet there is an important distinction between being available for transfer and being unwanted.<\/p>\n

Barcelona were prepared to consider offers, but Balde never made it clear that he wanted to leave, while the club also failed to find a destination that worked before the deadline.<\/p>\n

As a result, the left-back stays.<\/p>\n

He begins the season as a substitute within Flick\u2019s rotation, but that does not mean his campaign is destined to remain on the fringes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A long season brings injuries, suspensions, fixture congestion and changes in form and those circumstances could give Balde opportunities that do not currently appear to be there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alejandro Balde remains a Barcelona player this season, but the left-back\u2019s situation could have looked very different had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77167,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[933,92,222,223],"class_list":["post-79462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-barcelona","tag-alejandro-balde","tag-barcelona","tag-barcelona-news","tag-fc-barcelona"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79462","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=79462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}