Former Barcelona centre-back opens door to a Camp Nou return: “Why not?”

Barcelona have several holes in their team, with the holding midfield position, especially, crying out for help since Sergio Busquets departed the team on a free transfer.

The likes of Oriol Romeu, Ilkay Gundogan, Frenkie de Jong, Gavi, and most recently, even Andreas Christensen have taken a punt at it, with varying levels of success.

The left-wing slot has also seen a ton of inconsistency this season, with Ferran Torres, Joao Felix, Pedri, Fermin Lopez, Gavi, and Vitor Roque, among others, putting in shifts there, again, with little triumph.

And while these have been a problem, Barcelona’s central defence hosts some of the finest in their position across Europe. And while they have severely underperformed this season, their ability cannot be called into question.

Ronald Araujo, Jules Kounde, Inigo Martinez, Andreas Christensen, and now Pau Cubarsi make up truly one of the best defensive quintuplets on paper. However, one or more of them may leave the team this summer as Barcelona hope to raise money.

One of their very own in Chadi Riad is being contemplated as a potential replacement, while also keeping the option of officially promoting Cubarsi and/or Mikayil Faye from Barcelona Atletic.

Amidst all of this, Jean-Clair Todibo has spoken about potentially returning to the Camp Nou after his bitter departure from the team in 2021.

“When I arrived at Barça, the plan was for me to replace Pique. I had the qualities to do it but I wasn’t ready to do it.”

“A return to Barcelona? Why not?” he said, as quoted by Canal+ (h/t Actualite – Barça).

Todibo had two varying spells at Schalke and Benfica before finally impressing at Nice, who paid €8.5 million for his services, while allowing Barcelona to reserve a 20% sell-on clause on his contract.

He has been continually linked with a move to a bigger club pretty much every transfer window since then. Manchester United looked likely to sign him in the summer, but the move eventually failed.

Now 24, Nice are expected to ask nearly €40-50 million for Todibo’s services, with 20% of it going towards Barcelona. Should the Catalan giant chase his services — albeit unlikely —, they could get their hands on his signature for around €30 million.