Barcelona receive Dani Olmo loan bid from European giants

Barcelona may have found a temporary solution to their embarrassing Dani Olmo registration problem, with AC Milan reported to be willing to take the attacker on loan.

Barcelona have so far failed in their attempts to register Olmo, and the lesser-talked-about Pau Victor, with La Liga for the second half of the season. The Catalans did not have the financial scope to include the players on their strict salary budget at the start of the season, instead using a temporary loophole stemming from Andreas Christensen’s injury absence to register the pair up to December 31, 2024.

The Spanish football federation (RFEF) doesn’t allow a player to re-register for the same club in a single campaign, which is what Barcelona need to do with Olmo after his registration expired. The club have already been to local court to try and force an exception and now face an appeal to the Spain’s Higher Sports Council, at least seeking temporary registration before a final decision.

As it stands, neither Olmo nor Victor can play for Barcelona again this season.

The issue with trying to force registration through the courts is that an outcome may take longer than just the next few weeks. So if Barcelona were ultimately unsuccessful with their last legal challenge, it would consign both players to sitting out the remainder of the season.

While the January transfer window is open, there would be option for them to finish the season elsewhere. Where Olmo in particular is concerned, it has been widely reported that he is within his rights to terminate his contract – with full wages paid up – and seek another club as a free agent.

But the boyhood La Masia player appears to have made it clear he has no intention of taking that step. It means the danger of losing him permanently is minimal at most. Yet not playing, through no fault of his own, would still be a frustrating consequence of such loyalty.

Corriere della Sera has reported the interest of AC Milan, who would seemingly be happy to take Olmo on a short-term loan deal until the summer, by which time Barcelona should be able to register the midfielder for the entirety of the 2025/26 campaign after returning to La Liga’s 1:1 spending rules last week. It seems as much of a win-win situation as there could be possibly be in otherwise truly dire circumstances.

Milan have struggled so far in 2024/25 to keep pace with Serie A’s top six and face missing out on European football for the first time since 2019/20 unless they can boost an attack that has averaged only 1.5 goals per game in the league, finding the net 19 times less often than rivals Inter.

MARCA reports that no formal offer has made its way to Olmo, who it is said would turn down any that do because he still has faith in president Joan Laporta and hierarchy to figure things out.

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