After a fairly underwhelming season, FC Barcelona have now started to look like a side that can compete for the La Liga trophy in the last few weeks. The Catalans reduced the point deficit with Real Madrid to five with their win over Getafe yesterday, but actually winning the league is still looking very difficult.
However, getting their hands on La Liga can get even more difficult next season as Barcelona’s main rivals, Real Madrid, are going to significantly strengthen their already formidable squad this summer.
The French superstar Kylian Mbappe is expected to join the Merengues, this summer, and his addition will definitely make the Madrid side one of the best teams in the world.
Real Madrid have done most of the work to bring Mbappe to Spain, and the La Liga President also has already publicly stated that the Merengues can easily register him without making any financial rearrangements.
While this move will strengthen La Liga overall, SPORT reports that this treatment meted out to their rivals has opened some old wounds at Barcelona.
The Catalans are upset that Real Madrid is being allowed to sign one of the most expensive players in the world without any problems, while the league created multiple hurdles when they wanted to bring or retain their own players.
For instance, when Barcelona had to register Joao Felix, they told La Liga that he would be earning €400,000.
However, La Liga set his wages ten times this amount, keeping in view his contract with Atletico Madrid. On the other hand, Mbappe’s contract with PSG is not being considered because he is coming from another league.
La Liga can make the argument that Mbappe’s arrival will be good for Spanish football as the French forward is one of the best players in the world. However, here again, Barcelona have a grievance as La Liga did not facilitate them to keep the best player in the world, Lionel Messi.
The Catalan club also understands that La Liga had used the Messi saga to blackmail them. If the club had agreed to the CVC deal, Messi would have remained at Barcelona.
Now, even though this matter is in the past, the Catalans will still feel hard done by La Liga because of this duality of standards applied to them and their biggest rivals.