Adrien Rabiot agrees to join Barcelona on a free transfer in the summer • Midfielder to be paid £170,000 a week for five years • Barcelona confident of signing Toulouse’s Jean-Clair Todibo
The Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Adrien Rabiot will join Barcelona on a free transfer in the summer. The 23-year-old’s contract runs out in the summer and he has agreed a signing on fee of ?10m (£9m) as well as a salary of just over £170,000 a week for five years with the La Liga leaders. Rabiot has been at PSG since 2012 and was always expected to be the heartbeat of PSG’s midfield for years to come but his form has stagnated in the past couple of years and he will now attempt to relaunch his career in Spain. Despite being one of his country’s best young prospects he has played only six times for the national team. Barcelona are also confident of signing the 19-year-old Toulouse defender Jean-Clair Todibo on a free transfer in June. Manchester City and Juventus were among the clubs interested in the young centre-back but Barcelona have convinced the player to join them as they continue their overhaul of an ageing squad.
PSG, meanwhile, are in pole position to sign the young Ajax midfielder Frenkie de Jong, who had also interested Barcelona and Manchester City. The French club are in advanced talks with Ajax and are likely to agree a fee in the region of £65m for the 21-year-old midfielder.
Sky Italia and Paris United report that French midfielder Adrien Rabiot has reached an agreement with Barcelona over salary terms ahead of a free transfer move next summer.
The player’s agent and mother Véronique concluded an agreement with Barcelona Sporting Director Éric Abidal today, but had a ?10m salary understanding weeks ago. She used this week to attempt to bring that salary up to ?15m, but the Catalan club refused, granting a 5-year contract worth ?50m in total, plus a ?10m signing bonus.
That Catalan giants have now entered into negotiations with PSG about potentially signing Rabiot this month, with the French international currently refusing to participate in the club’s tour of Doha to take place in the middle of January.
Contract rebel Adrien Rabiot is hoping to force Paris Saint-Germain to allow him to train with the first-team squad again amid ongoing uncertainty about his future at the French club.
The 23-year-old France international midfielder has not played for PSG since early December and has been ordered to train with the reserves after failing to agree a new contract.
His existing deal expires at the end of the season and Rabiot has been strongly linked with moves to Barcelona and Bayern Munich in the last month, either for free in the summer, or even before the January transfer window closes.
The French league (LFP) confirmed on Monday Rabiot has taken the matter to their legal committee, claiming PSG's decision to banish him goes against the "professional footballer's charter".
That charter only allows for players to be ordered to train apart "on a temporary basis" and for "exclusively sporting reasons".
His enforced absence comes at a time when PSG are short of options in midfield and have just lost Italy midfielder Marco Verratti to an ankle injury.