Joan Garcia hasn’t made a final decision on joining Barcelona, but Arsenal are seemingly withdrawing from the race amid the goalkeeper’s desire for consistent games.
Despite recent claims that Joan Garcia has almost reached an agreement to sign for Barcelona, Matteo Moretto reports that the goalkeeper hasn’t yet made a decision on his future.
Moretto concedes that Barcelona have made significant progress with Garcia’s representatives in recent days, but adds that the possibility of a move to the Premier League remains alive.
Yet it seems like Garcia won’t be joining Arsenal, with Carlos Monfort of Jijantes FC reporting that the Gunners have pulled out of the race. The club reportedly believe €25m is too much money to spend on a goalkeeper when they already have David Raya.
It may have been difficult to convince Garcia to join Arsenal as Raya’s backup to begin with, following comments from the goalkeeper in recent days.
“All players want to play, I’ve just started. I’ve been playing for a year and a half and I want to continue playing,” Garcia said.
“There are many factors to consider, but for me, being so young and with the desire I have, it’s very important to keep playing.”
Garcia’s release clause is currently set at €25m (£21.1m), and it will only increase to €30m (£25.3m) in the final 15 days of the transfer window.
The clause would have increased to €30m immediately if Garcia had been called up by Spain this month, but Unai Simon, David Raya, and Alex Remiro were selected instead. Conversely, the clause would have dropped to ~€15m if Espanyol were relegated, but they avoided the drop on the final day.
The goalkeeper made 38 appearances for Espanyol this season, keeping eight clean sheets. He ultimately helped them to avoid relegation from La Liga on the final day, with a number of strong performances in the run-in.