Barça was looking for a crack in Espanyol, digging and digging—until they finally found it. The second club from Catalonia could only silently watch as it lost one of its best players. Joan García had a 26,000,000 euros release clause, and Barca decided to activate it. The rest was the easy part. Now it’s official: the Catalonia-born goalkeeper has become a Blaugrana player and signed a contract until 2031.Joan Garcia is culer! 💙❤️ pic.twitter.com/u9zntseIj8— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) June 19, 2025 Barca’s management made the decision to secure the future between the posts, so they wouldn’t have to wait for Marc-Andre ter Stegen to recover or wonder whether Wojciech Szczęsny wanted to continue his career. García will become the second most expensive goalkeeper in the history of the Camp Nou club—nearly five times more expensive than, say, Vítor Baía. The only keeper who cost more than Joan is, interestingly, Jasper Cillessen, who was bought for 33,000,000 and played only five matches in three years.The decision has been made about cigarette addict on whom Barcelona dependsIt wasn’t just the fact that he played every single minute for Espanyol in the recently concluded season—García was among the best goalkeepers in the entire La Liga. He kept a clean sheet in eight matches, which is a great stat for a goalkeeper in a lower-table team. He also had the third-highest save percentage—73.7%—behind only Jan Oblak (74.1%) and Unai Simon (77.4%).Blunt Pep: ‘If I were at Madrid or Barca, I would have been sacked!’Earlier, García addressed Espanyol fans saying he had made one of the toughest decisions of his career and asked for their understanding. It’s questionable how much understanding he’ll get, especially considering Espanyol fans hate Barcelona and don’t take it kindly when their players move directly to their arch-rivals—no matter how much smaller Espanyol may be as a club. Hansi Flick will now have the pleasant dilemma of deciding who will be his first-choice goalkeeper next season—but he won’t go wrong either way. Barca hasn’t had this kind of competition between the posts in a long time.FIFA CLUB WORLD CUP 2025Matchday 2Thursday19:00: (1.60) Palmeiras (4.00) Al Ahly Cairo (6.50)22:00: (4.70) Inter Miami (3.70) Porto (1.85)Friday00:55: (8.00) Seattle (4.60) Atletico Madrid (1.40)04:00: (1.23) PSG (6.50) Botafogo (12.0)19:00: (1.01) Benfica (17.0) Auckland (95.0)21:00: (4.40) Flamengo (3.50) Chelsea (1.85)Saturday00:55: (1.90) Los Angeles (3.45) Esperance (4.20)04:00: (1.22) Bayern (6.50) Boca Juniors (12.0)19:00: (9.00) Mamelodi (5.80) Dortmund (1.30)22:00: (1.20) Inter Milan (6.75) Urawa RD (14.0)Sunday00:55: (1.27) Fluminense (5.60) Ulsan (12.0)04:00: (2.15) River Plate (3.35) Monterrey (3.45)19:00: (1.22) Juventus (6.25) Wydad Casablanca (14.0)22:00: (1.22) Real Madrid (6.50) Pachuca (12.0)Monday00:55: (4.10) Salzburg (3.60) Al Hilal (1.88)04:00: (1.05) Man.City (14.0) Al Ain (35.0)***odds are subject to change***
