Barcelona may have to lower €15 million demand for defender amid Ligue 1 interest

With Ilkay Gundogan now on his way out, FC Barcelona will now shift their focus towards sanctioning the exits of other players like Vitor Roque and Mikayil Faye.

Roque, for one, is attracting interest from Real Betis in La Liga (loan) and Sporting CP in Portugal (permanent transfer).

As for Faye, the 20-year-old defensive starlet is in demand in France, with Rennes and Lille tabling offers to sign him.

Neither club willing to meet Barcelona’s asking price

However, now, SPORT reports that neither Rennes nor Lille are willing to meet Barcelona’s asking price of €15 million for Mika Faye.

As such, the Blaugrana may be forced to lower their demands as they are eager to sanction his departure at the earliest.

Rennes, for their part, have put forth an offer that is close to around €10 million while Lille, too, would be willing to propose a similar fee for the 20-year-old Senegalese international.

Barcelona will have to find a formula to get Rennes to accept the operation. A potential bonus could be added to the €10 million to get closer to Barça’s demands.

However, the Catalans are not in a position to tighten the rope too much so that the negotiations do not break down, as happened with Porto at the beginning of the summer.

Exits necessary

The transfer market closes in ten days and Barcelona need to finalise exits as soon as possible, not only to register new signing Dani Olmo but also to make more recruitments.

Mika Faye is one of the few players for whom Barça can obtain a transfer fee for, considering that Ilkay Gundogan is leaving on a free transfer while Vitor Roque is headed for a loan departure and Clement Lenglet is also likely to leave on a temporary basis.

So, it remains to be seen how Barcelona decide to proceed with their negotiations with Rennes and Lille as they hope to close Faye’s exit as soon as possible.