Five stars Barcelona could be forced to sell in January transfer firesale including De Jong, Raphinha and Pedri

HERE are FIVE stars that Barcelona could look to sell after their salary cap was slashed by almost 50 PER CENT.

The LaLiga title holders have endured a years of struggle financially due to mismanagement by the club’s top brass that has seriously impacted them in the transfer market.

APBarcelona look set to sell a host of players come January[/caption]

A number of big names have had to depart, including Lionel Messi back in 2021, as a result of them trying to trim the wage bill.

That continued during this summer’s window as Ousmane Dembele, Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba, Antoine Griezmann and Franck Kessie were all sold.

And the likes of Ansu Fati, Clement Lenglet, Eric Garcia and Sergino Dest were shipped out on loan.

Left with a depleted squad, Barcelona did manage to bring in £3m midfielder Oriol Romeu and free transfers Ilkay Gundogan and Inigo Martinez, while Joao Cancelo and Joao Felix also arrived on loan.

But now it looks certain that more high-profile departures are on the cards after LaLiga confirmed that Barca’s salary cap has been slashed by almost half.

It has been imposed by the top-flight’s president Javier Tebas and is based on the revenues and spending of each club from last season.

The official figures show that the cap has dropped from £555.8m in February to just £231.6m now and that is the maximum amount that they can spend during the current campaign.

It also dictates Barcelona’s spending on players ahead of the winter window.

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The current staff and player wage costs are said to be around £347m, which exceeds the new limit by almost 50 per cent and therefore means that they are only permitted to use half of any revenue generated in January. 

This means that Barca will most likely look to sell players in the winter window to generate funds in an attempt to break even.

However, if they fail to do so, then the limit may be decreased even further for next season.

Given that Fati and Lenglet already find themselves out on loan to Brighton and Aston Villa respectively, they could be the first players to make way in the expected firesale.

And they could also look to shift the below stars:

FRENKIE DE JONG

Manchester United failed again in the summer to bring the Dutchman, who arrived from Ajax in 2019.

He agreed to a £400,000-a-week salary when he joined Barcelona , however, he has since taken several wage reductions due to the La Liga team’s financial crisis.

His initial salary was worth £12m a year before it was reduced to £9m in the 2020/21 season.

De Jong took a further pay cut the following year, earning £4.3m.

Barcleona are now required to pay those deferred wages to the player on top of his existing salary.

As a result, De Jong took home £16.8million net last term and now gets £21m during this campaign.

RAPHINHA

Barcelona looked to shift the Brazilian winger over the summer as Juventus and a host of Premier League clubs circled.

But the ace seems determined to stay at the Nou Camp after finally securing his dream move there from Leeds in the summer of 2022.

PEDRI

The 20-year-old academy graduate is one of the crown jewels in Barca’s crown.

However, a long list of top clubs across the continent would love to have him in their ranks.

And he would command one of the biggest transfer fees from the players within the squad.

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