Clement Lenglet €30M Transfer to Barcelona Finalized
La Liga's prized defender, Clement Lenglet has finalized his transfer to the Catalan giant's team, with Barca as the reason for the issuing of the clause for release. The Sevilla-hailing Clement Lenglet has already been officially signed as part of team Barcelona.
A point in football history, where rumors surrounded Lenglet’s link with the Catalan team, which is believed to have been going on for the past months, has finally come to an end, as Lenglet has inked a contract that's good for five years.
It is where Barca paid the release clause of close to €36 million, which the deal is already inclusive with.
All-in-all, the deal costs as much as €300 million and will be in effect until June 30, 2013. Starting November last month, there have already been rumors about the supposed shift of Lenglet to opposing Camp Nou.
All of these rumors even swelling even in the midst of the Sevilla team insisting that they were in the process of locking in one of their most primed players for a deal which could last for several years, which would, in turn, cause him to be the highest-paid player for the said team.
The center-back, however, wasn’t able to come into terms with the provisions of a new contract, which has caused the Rojiblancos to quit trying. This is even though they were unsure of whether or not Barca would have his release clause paid.
Since his Ligue One, Nancy side introduction, Lenglet has established himself as one of the Sevilla defenders who is chased after the most. Aside from the La Liga team, Manchester United was also rumored to have an interest in getting Lenglet on board.
At Camp Nou, Lenglet is now on the same team with Lucas Digne and Samuel Umtiti, who are defenders of the team, as well as Ousmane Sembene, a forward. Back in his time with Sevilla, he has managed to play more than 70 times, as well as contribute to 4 goals for the whole club.
In his younger years, he managed to reap ten caps in the Under-21, though he has not been capped at the senior level yet. He has also been capped at the U16 level.
This is the second biggest signing of the Barcelona team, the first being the €40m-signing of Arthur just Monday of this week.
A lot more players are expected to be offloaded by the Catalans after Arthur, and that is to make way for players who are not part of the EU. It is expected that Yerry Mina is going to depart, following Paulinho, a Brazil international player has been given the go-signal to leave.
The departure of the former comes as a surprise, considering that he has had a great run with the Colombian team during the recently-wrapped World Cup. A €24-million fee move is also rumored to be happening for Everton, who currently is the center-back player for South America.
The Sevilla players have already said their goodbyes to Clement Lenglet, who is already on the way to Barcelona. Though he wasn’t able to partake in their team’s training session last Wednesday to avoid any risks of injury, he still was given applause by the ones who were there.
The players of Rojiblanco were quick to throw jokes with him about his “keepy-uppies," and their coach said his warm congrats on the move.
Roque Mesa reminded Lenglet of their next meeting at the Supercopa. On the 12th of August, Sevilla will be taking on Barcelona during the Curtain-Raiser of the Spanish season.
Lenglet was already in Barcelona-themed colors for Thursday’s press, after leaving the preseason training camp of his now former team in Benidorm prior.
The deal of close to €36 million with the Catalan club will be on for the next three years and comes with a release clause of €300 million.
The finalization of the deal came after a thorough deliberation with Sevilla, who will now be working with the coach of the said team, Ernesto Valverde. Barca has indeed, been wise paying the Sevilla team €6 million more than the release clause that was at €30 m.
Lenglet’s Barcelona move explained
Following the successful transition to being a Camp Nou player, the defender was quick to explain the main motive behind such a move.
According to him, who spoke directly to ESPN, he chose it as it's biggest club in the world for him, and he thinks that Spain is the world’s best league.
He believes that it is the best club for him to bag even more trophies, and simply because he wants to play as much as he possibly could. This move has effectively made Valverde’s defense even stronger.
Lenglet also claims that he is indeed, ambitious, but makes it a point to be respectful and that he already knows of how Barca has a solid defense already.
Having signed for Sevilla in January of last year, he has managed to make a name for himself as one of the Sanchez Pizjuan favorites, where a lot of the elite clubs of Europe managed to watch, and how they were glued to the match.
Barcelona’s Blaugrana was already looking for new defenders for the team during the summer, and Ernesto Valverde, the team’s coach, wanted to bring in a player that has already been adapted to La Liga.
Another thing which triggered the move was the financial status of Sevilla, where keeping him on the team could cause financial problems on the part of the team, as having great players would oblige them to increase their pay significantly.
In times of dire financial status, it was tough, but it was also best to let the good players go, and one of their best players who became involved in this was Lenglet.
It can be remembered that he was recruited to Sevilla by Monchi, and he is not the only one who has left the team to jump ship, with Adriano, Dani Alves, and Seydou Keita all moving to the Catalan club from Andalucia.
Lenglet’s journey could be traced back to 2 years ago, where he remembers always wanting to be a member of the Spanish team ever since he was a teen. This was then the time when Monchi got to talk to his parents and got him in the team.
The other side of the departure
Lenglet is deemed as one of the best parting gifts for Monchi, who has also left Sevilla in the previous summer season, where he was hands-down, the most featured player among all players of the Andalusian team for the ’17-’18 season.
He was also an exemplary player for the team of Vincenzo Montella, who managed to dethrone Manchester United from its place in the Champion’s League.
He was known for his pace, note-worthy positional sense, as well as his physical strength, enduring and performing game after game. Indeed, what’s Sevilla’s loss in letting Lenglet go will be the gain of Barca, his new team.
Other coaches wished that Lenglet would have stayed, even for just a few years more with Sevilla, but this wish will never come true following the finalization of the deal. One of these coaches who hope that Lenglet would have played at least a few more seasons with his now former team is Montella, a former coach.
Even if Lenglet has transferred teams, a part of him will always remain with the Andalusian capital. His brother remains playing for the Sevilla team as a full-back.
Both brothers have been taught by the same teacher for Spanish, as well as with several other players, and he was also quick to share his thoughts about what happened.
He gives credit to the brothers, saying that out of all players, the brothers are one of the most responsible, where they always do their homework and do it putting all their attention to it.
Future with Barca
As big of a team Juventus is, Lenglet turned the opportunity down favoring Sevilla in 2017.
He claims to show his expertise as part of the Barca team, that he would not just be a starter but instead would use his being a member of the team to soar into greater heights with a career, this time around, much faster.
With his exemplary work ethic and skill that he has shown through the years, we think that this would not at all be an impossible task to fulfill.
Julien Escude, a former defender for France and Sevilla, believes this, saying that he has all that it takes for him to be one of the best players and assets for the team in the future. Together sharing this belief with Escude is the whole Barca team as well.
On August 12, it would be his debut competitive match, now as part of the Barca team, where he would be slated to go up against his former team during the Spanish Supercopa event. For sure, this will be a must-see matchup.