The La Liga giants announced the deal in a statement on Wednesday, stating that the loan will run until June 30, 2026.

“Barcelona and Manchester United have reached a deal for the loan of the player Marcus Rashford until June 30, 2026. The agreement also establishes an option to buy the English forward,” the club said.

According to Spanish media reports, Barcelona will cover around 75 per cent of Rashford’s £325,000 weekly wages, while the 27-year-old has agreed to forgo the remaining balance to facilitate the move.

Rashford, who made his debut for Manchester United in 2015, fell out of favour under manager Ruben Amorim and was loaned to Aston Villa in the second half of the 2024/25 season. He scored four goals in 17 appearances before a hamstring injury ended his campaign in April.

The forward has scored 138 goals in 426 matches for Manchester United but had not played for the club since December. Amorim had publicly questioned Rashford’s commitment to the team.

Barcelona manager, Hansi Flick, had earlier described Rashford and Liverpool’s Luis Diaz as “fantastic players” amid transfer speculation. The Catalan side are seeking to strengthen their options on the left flank, following their domestic treble-winning campaign.

Rashford is expected to provide competition for wingers Raphinha and Lamine Yamal, and serve as potential cover for Polish striker Robert Lewandowski, who turns 37 in August.

Barcelona had initially targeted Athletic Bilbao winger Nico Williams, but the Spaniard opted to extend his contract with the Basque club.

Rashford’s move has drawn criticism in England. Former United striker, Teddy Sheringham, said the player did not merit a switch to the Spanish giants.

“From my perspective, if you go from Manchester United to Barcelona, that’s a step up that he hasn’t deserved,” Sheringham told SkyBet.

Meanwhile, Manchester United are reportedly looking to offload more players this summer, including Antony, Jadon Sancho and Alejandro Garnacho.

Barcelona may still face hurdles registering Rashford and newly signed goalkeeper Joan Garcia due to La Liga’s financial regulations, having struggled to register players like Dani Olmo last season.

Only a few British players have featured for Barcelona in the past. They include Gary Lineker, Steve Archibald and Mark Hughes in the 1980s. Others such as Marcus McGuane and Louie Barry had brief stints with the club’s youth and B teams.

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Argentine seven-time Ballon d’Or winner Messi said last month that he was moving to the Major League Soccer club after allowing his contract at Paris Saint-Germain to run out.

“The major unveiling event will include exciting entertainment, speeches on the pitch and more,” the club said in a press release, which did not mention Messi by name.

Messi, who won the World Cup with Argentina in December, is expected to be joined at Miami by his former Barcelona teammate and ex-Spain international midfielder Sergio Busquets and the pair could be presented together.

The club recently appointed former Barcelona and Argentina coach Gerardo “Tata” Martino to take charge of the team.

Messi is expected to make his debut on July 21 against Mexican club Cruz Azul in the new Leagues Cup — a tournament between top flight clubs from MLS and the Mexican league.

Inter Miami majority owner Jorge Mas has said the club could make “three to five signings” during the current transfer window.

Inter Miami is at the bottom in MLS’ Eastern Conference and ranked 28th of 29 clubs in the league.

Martino said, upon his appointment, that he had spoken to Messi and Busquets about their impending move to the MLS club.

“Sometimes in our world you associate United States and Miami with holidays. And it’s not that. They are coming to compete.

“They are coming from winning world titles, Spanish league titles. They are not going to relax. They will compete because it is in their blood,” he said.

“The Unveil” will be conducted at the club’s DRV PNK Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, north of Miami.

Former England and Manchester United midfielder David Beckham, a co-owner of the club, is also likely to appear at the event.

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The 53-year-old, who had been a free agent since being sacked as Spain coach last December, replaces Christophe Galtier after his departure from the club was confirmed earlier in the day.

Luis Enrique was unveiled by PSG at a press conference alongside the Qatar-backed club’s president Nasser al-Khelaifi at their brand new training complex in Poissy, to the north-west of the French capital.

“I’m delighted to be joining Paris in order to enjoy a new experience,” Luis Enrique said in a club statement.

“It’s so exciting to meet new people, to live in this city, to learn a new language and, above all, to manage PSG.”

The new coach, whose full name is Luis Enrique Martinez Garcia, is the eighth man to lead the club since the transformative Qatari takeover of 2011 and, like those before him, will be charged with bringing them the success in the Champions League that has so far proved elusive.

PSG have never won Europe’s most prestigious club competition, coming closest when they lost in the final to Bayern Munich in 2020.

They have gone out in the last 16 in five of the last seven seasons, losing to Bayern at that stage in the campaign just finished. That defeat proved costly for Galtier.

Luis Enrique arrives with pedigree in the Champions League, having won it as coach of Barcelona in 2015 when a brilliant team led by an attack of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez beat Juventus in the final.

He now joins a club beginning their latest rebuild following the departure of Messi at the end of his two-year stay.

Mbappe future in doubt

There are doubts surrounding the future of superstar forward Kylian Mbappe after he told the club he would not renew a contract that expires next year.

Several high-profile new signings are expected to be confirmed as the club prepares to start pre-season training in the coming days, with a tour to Japan scheduled for later this month.

Luis Enrique brought to an end a three-year stay at Barca in 2017 and then became Spain coach in 2018.

However, he quit in June 2019 and announced the death of his nine-year-old daughter from bone cancer two months later.

He returned to the Spain post in November of that year, retaking the reins from Robert Moreno, and took La Roja to the Euro 2020 semi-finals and the 2021 UEFA Nations League final before being fired after their elimination from last year’s World Cup in the last 16 in a penalty shoot-out against Morocco.

Galtier had only been in charge for one season and still had a year to run on his contract, but his departure had been expected ever since the end of the last Ligue 1 season a month ago.

“Paris Saint-Germain and Christophe Galtier have decided to terminate his contract as coach of the first team,” the club said in a statement.

“Everyone at Paris Saint-Germain thanks Christophe Galtier, as well as his assistants Thierry Oleksiak and Joao Sacramento, for their professionalism and commitment over the course of the season, and wishes them the best in their future careers.”

Galtier led PSG to a French record 11th title but that success was also overshadowed by their disappointing exit from the Champions League and a French Cup last-16 loss to Marseille.

The final weeks of Galtier’s reign were also marred by accusations that he made racist remarks about players during his previous job at Nice.

He has vehemently denied the accusations but will stand trial in December on charges of “moral harassment and discrimination on the grounds of actual or supposed membership or non-membership of a particular ethnic group, nation, alleged race or religion”, according to prosecutors in Nice.

The offences are punishable by three years’ imprisonment and a 45,000-euro ($49,000) fine.

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“Messi is a done deal. He will play in Saudi Arabia next season,” said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity and without naming the club.

“The contract is exceptional. It’s huge. We are just finalising some small details,” added the source, who is not authorised to speak to media.

Asked about the comments, Messi’s current club Paris Saint-Germain simply noted he remains under contract until June 30.

A separate PSG source said: “If the club had wanted to renew his contract, it would have been done earlier.”

The 35-year-old World Cup winner was suspended by Qatari-owned PSG last week for an unauthorised trip to Saudi, where he is a tourism ambassador.

Messi’s expected arrival in the oil-rich kingdom follows in the footsteps of his arch-rival Cristiano Ronaldo, who joined Saudi Pro League club Al Nassr in a massive deal in January.

Ronaldo’s agreement to June 2025 is said to total more than 400 million euros ($ 439 million), making him the world’s highest-paid athlete according to Forbes.

Both deals are being bankrolled by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), one of the world’s biggest sovereign wealth funds with more than $620 billion in assets, the source said.

“The negotiations didn’t take as much time as the ones with Ronaldo. As we now know the recipe to contract world-class players,” said the source.

“It’s Saudi Arabia that brought him not a specific club. The Money comes from one place — PIF.”

Ronaldo’s arrival has not had the impact Al Nassr would have hoped for on the pitch.

They have lost top spot in the Saudi Pro League table and are out of the running in the King’s Cup and Super Cup.

French coach Rudi Garcia departed in April.

 PSG Protesters 

Messi, who turns 36 in June, has had two lacklustre seasons in Paris after a glorious era at Barcelona where he won four Champions League and 10 La Liga titles, and is still worshipped by the fans.

The record seven-time world player of the year, joining a mouth-watering attack featuring Kylian Mbappe and Neymar, scored just 11 goals in his first season as he helped PSG to a routine Ligue 1 title.

But PSG have got no closer to a coveted maiden Champions League victory, bowing out twice in the last 16 even with the illustrious Argentine in the line-up.

Frustrations boiled over last week when black-clad PSG protesters let off flares and sang hostile chants targeting the underperforming Messi, Neymar and Italian midfielder Marco Verratti.

The angry scenes contrasted with Messi’s career-crowning moment in December, when he led Argentina to a breathless World Cup final victory over Mbappe and France in Doha to fill the biggest gap in his resume.

Qatar’s emir draped him in a traditional bisht robe at the trophy ceremony, a reminder of the fossil-fuel riches pouring into football and Messi’s bank account via PSG.

However, Messi is also a highly paid tourism ambassador for Qatar’s neighbours and sometimes rivals Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter that is attempting to diversify its largely single-stream economy.

The post Messi set to join Saudi Arabian club next season first appeared on MegaIcon Magazine.

The post Messi set to join Saudi Arabian club next season appeared first on MegaIcon Magazine.

The Argentine, who is still in contract negotiations with Barcelona, was given permission to miss training on Friday by coach Ronald Koeman and, with the club now out of the title race, will not play in the away fixture against Eibar.

“The striker can enjoy a rest before next month’s Copa America after a season in which he is one of the players in the squad who has played most,” Barcelona said in a statement.

The 33-year-old has already played 47 matches this season for Barca, scoring 38 goals, but his future at the club remains in doubt as he has been linked with a move to Manchester City where he could join up with former coach Pep Guardiola.

Barcelona’s defeat by Celta Vigo on Sunday leaves them third in La Liga, seven points behind leaders Atletico Madrid and only two ahead of fourth-placed Sevilla.

The Copa America, which was postponed from 2020 because of the coronavirus, begins in Argentina on June 13 with the final on July 10.

The event was due to be co-hosted with Colombia but civil unrest there, which has resulted in 42 deaths, has led to all games being moved to Argentina.

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“The president always said that at the end of the season I could decide if I wanted to go or if I wanted to stay and in the end he didn’t end up keeping his word,” Messi said in an interview with Goal, released on Friday.

“I thought and we were sure that I was free. The president always said that at the end of the season I could decide if I stayed or not and now they hold on to the fact that I did not say it before June 10 when it turns out that on June 10 we were competing for the league in the middle of this shitty virus and this disease that altered all the dates.”

Messi, 33, added: “And this is the reason why I am going to continue in the club… because the president told me that the only way to leave was to pay the 700-million-euro release clause.

“This is impossible, and then the other way was to go to trial. I would never go to court against Barca because it is the club that I love, that gave me everything since I arrived, it is the club of my life, I have made my life here.”

Messi had said he wanted to leave the club he joined as a boy after Barcelona’s humiliating 8-2 defeat to Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-finals in August.

His lawyers sent a burofax stating his intention to go for free on August 25 but Messi says he had made his feelings clear to Bartomeu many times before.

“I told the club, especially the president, that I wanted to go,” said Messi. “I’ve been telling him all year. I believed it was time to step aside.

‘Everything became difficult’

“I believed that the club needed more young people, new people and I thought my time in Barcelona was over, feeling very sorry because I always said that I wanted to finish my career here.

“It was a very difficult year, I suffered a lot in training, in games and in the dressing room. Everything became very difficult for me and there came a time when I considered looking for new goals, new horizons.

“It wasn’t because of the Champions League result against Bayern, I had been thinking about it for a long time. I told the president and the president always said that at the end of the season I could decide if I wanted to go or if I wanted to stay and in the end he did not end up keeping his word.”

Despite his unhappiness, Messi insists he will give his all for Barcelona next season under their new coach Ronald Koeman, with his current contract due to expire in June next year.

The post Barcelona: Real reason for Messi’s u-turn first appeared on MegaIcon Magazine.

The post Barcelona: Real reason for Messi’s u-turn appeared first on MegaIcon Magazine.

Lawyers for the Argentina star sent Barca a fax in which they announced Messi’s desire to rescind his contract by triggering a release clause.

However, the club maintains the clause expired in June and he remains under contract until the end of the 2021 season.

“In principial, this clause expired on June 10, but the unusual nature of this season disrupted by the coronavirus opened the way for Messi to ask to be released from his contract now,” wrote Spanish sports daily Marca.

“It’s the first step towards opening negotiations over his departure, on the basis of which his release clause amounts to 700 million euros.”

According to Spanish media, Messi met with new Barca coach Ronald Koeman last week and told the Dutchman he saw himself “more out than in” the club.

“The end of the glorious era of Leo Messi at Barcelona seems to be close. After the arrival of Ronald Koeman, what looks like the exit of his friend Luis Suarez and a difficult and turbulent end to the season, Messi told Barcelona in a fax of his intention to leave the club,” said Once radio station.

Barcelona suffered a humiliating 8-2 defeat by Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-finals in Lisbon earlier this month, resulting in the dismissal of coach Quique Setien after barely six months in charge.

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Chelsea striker Abraham opened the scoring in the 34th minute by pouncing on a mistake by Barcelona midfielder Sergio Busquets who attempted to clear the ball.

But with Chelsea midfielder Jorginho applying pressure, the ball rolled towards Abraham who only had to step past rushing goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen and gently send it into the net.

Four minutes later, Chelsea midfielder Christian Pulisic showed off his speed and footwork to infiltrate the Barca defence, but his left-footer went just wide.

Barcelona went on the offensive in the second half, with substitute striker Carles Perez leading the way.

But superb saves by Chelsea goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga repeatedly denied Barca any attempt to equalise.

In the 55th minute Perez zipped past three Chelsea defenders but his left toe kick finish was not good enough to get past Arrizabalaga.

A few minutes later, he dashed deep into the left side to feed a high-speed cross to striker Malcom, but Arrizabalaga again denied them.

Chelsea made it 2-0 with less than 10 minutes left as midfielder Barkley picked up a cross in front of the box and curled it into the net, with substitute ‘keeper Neto getting a touch it but unable to block it.

Just before injury time, Barcelona got a free-kick just outside the box but midfielder Ivan Rakitic’s shot went above the bar.

Rakitic however quickly redeemed himself in injury time, picking up a cross and firing a lightning right-footer that went deep into the net for a consolation goal for Barcelona.

AFP

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Luis Suarez’s 12th-minute back-post header was deflected past David de Gea by United left-back Shaw.

The teams meet again next Tuesday, April 16 at the  Nou Camp.

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The La Liga champions want a low-cost option to complete the squad.

Ighalo has many offers to return to Europe, after leaving Watford to play for Changchun Yatai in China for two years.

Changchun Yatai have been relegated to the second division and Ighalo wants to come back to European football.

He has three offers from the Premier League, but Barca will be an attractive option.

Barca’s scouts know Ighalo well as he was at Granada. He scored 12 and 15 goals in his two seasons with Watford, who sold him to China for 25m.

The Nou Camp side also want a player they can rotate with Luis Suarez.

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