Barcelona have confirmed the departure of talented young midfielder Dro Fernández to Paris Saint-Germain with the club president, Joan Laporta, describing the situation around his move as “unpleasant”.
Dro, who joined the club at 14, made his first-team debut in September, and turned 18 on 12 January, arrived in the French capital on Sunday night for a medical. Considered one of the outstanding players of his generation, his representatives had appeared to agree a new contract with Barcelona, due to be signed after his birthday, but he informed the head coach, Hansi Flick, of his decision to depart the same week.
Although he has €6m (£5.2m) buyout clause, PSG are understood to have agreed a fee over €8m (£6.9m) as a gesture of goodwill at the end of a process that has angered Barcelona. When the subject was raised with Flick during the pre-match press conference before Barcelona played Real Sociedad a week ago, he first refused to talk about it until the deal was officially done. But, having just been informed of the player’s decision, he ended up allowing his frustration to show.
“I put a lot of effort in the young players and helping them improve but there are a lot of people around them,” Flick said. “There are footballers who are 17 or 18 but who have people who make decisions. I don’t want to say more.”
Flick had promoted Dro to the first team squad and handed him his debut at 17 but opportunities were few. He departs having played just 148 minutes across five games. Under Luis Enrique, whose 4-3-3 formation theoretically suits Dro more than Flick’s 4-2-3-1, there are hopes that he will get more minutes at PSG.
“It’s an unpleasant situation,” Laporta told Catalan radio. “We had agreed a new situation with Dro for when he turned 18 and surprisingly his agent informed us that he couldn’t fulfil what had been agreed.”
