BARCELONA – Barcelona announced this Sunday the transfer of Jean-Clair Todibo to Nice, in which he was loaned the second half of this last season and which exercised his right to purchase for 8.5 million fixed euros.
The total amount of the operation could amount to 15.5 million euros depending on various variables and, in addition, the Barça club will have the right to an unspecified percentage of a possible future sale of the center by its new club.
The transfer of the French footballer, who had a contract until June 2023, opens one of the most urgent folders in Barça, in need as it is of giving way to a good number of players both for adjusting to the 25 maximum chips allowed by LaLiga and by the The need to significantly lower the payroll of the workforce.
The Barça club, whose first squad will start the preseason on July 12, seeks to place players with a higher incidence in salaries such as the cases of Coutinho and Umtiti mainly, although they are not the only ones.
Todibo was signed by Barça in January 2019, sponsored by the then technical secretary Eric Abidal, and costing one million euros. At the age of 18 at the time and having played only half a season in the Toulouse first team, the central defender was considered one of the players with the best future in his country, but Ernesto Valverde, who understood that he needed a period of adaptation, barely allowed him to He conceded two games, making his debut against Huesca and also playing in Vigo against Celta.
In the following season, 2019-20, he played two league games and another in the Champions League, at San Siro against Inter, before being loaned during the winter market to Schalke 04, where an injury prevented him from settling in the German team , not considering his signing at the end of the course.
In the summer of 2020, he was loaned to Benfica of Portugal, with a purchase option, but his tour in Portugal was a real failure, first due to an injury and later because he was not considered in the club, with which he only intervened in two games. Before, in January 2021, Nice bet on him once Ronald Koeman rejected his return to the Camp Nou.
The French club signed a mid-season loan in which a purchase option was included that, finally, and taking into account its excellent performance (it only missed two of 17 league games), it confirmed it would execute, which was finally confirmed this Sunday.