Barcelona have agreed to cover the entirety of Marcus Rashford’s Manchester United salary for the duration of his proposed loan spell, multiple reports in English media have claimed.
Seven months after declaring himself “ready for a new challenge” and almost an entire summer spent very publicly pining after a move to Catalonia, Rashford appears to be on the verge of belatedly joining Barcelona. It emerged on Saturday that a season-long loan deal had been agreed in principle between the two clubs.
During this intense period of speculation, multiple reports coming out of Spain claimed that Rashford was willing to sacrifice a significant proportion of his lucrative salary in a bid to force through his “dream move”. However, The Times are one of numerous English outlets to report that Barcelona have found the funds to match the 27-year-old’s full pay packet.
Rashford is thought to earn in the region of £325,000 ($436,000) per week, with this proposed arrangement removing as much as £17 million ($22.8 million) from Manchester United’s wage bill for the 2025–26 campaign. Quite how Barcelona are going to afford this outlay remains to be seen. The club are still very much beholden to La Liga’s strict financial regulations.
Nico Williams—whose snub of Barcelona has cleared the pathway for this Rashford loan—ultimately turned down the La Liga champions after failing to receive the requisite assurances that his salary would fit within the club’s spending limits. Just last season, Dani Olmo and Pau Victor were both forcibly removed from Barcelona’s squad by La Liga due to financial irregularities. It took the intervention of the Spanish government to have both players restored to the pitch.
Barcelona’s loan deal for Rashford is also thought to include an option to buy, which Mundo Deportivo claim to be valued at just €30 million (£26 million, $34.9 million), almost half the £40 million ($53.7 million) Manchester United were reportedly demanding for Rashford earlier this summer.
With a medical scheduled over the upcoming days, Rashford could be unveiled as a Barcelona player as soon as Tuesday.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Barcelona ‘Set’ Marcus Rashford Salary, Man Utd Buy Out Clause ‘Revealed’.