Jules Kounde named in Barcelona squad for Man City friendly

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Jules Kounde named in Barcelona squad for Man City friendly

Barcelona have named Jules Kounde in their squad for Wednesday night’s friendly against Manchester City, though the Frenchman is still not registered to play in La Liga.

Kounde has only played in pre-season for Barça since completing a summer switch from Sevilla, persuaded to choose the Catalans over the chance to join Chelsea.

The centre-back has been ineligible for Barça’s opening two La Liga fixtures of the new season because the club don’t have the resources to register him in line with the league’s salary cap regulations until other players are offloaded.

Having been forced to release Lionel Messi last year because of a lack of funds, Barça have activated four financial levers – effectively selling off stakes of future income streams – to raise the necessary capital to register Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha, Franck Kessie and Andreas Christensen, as well as new contracts for Ousmane Dembele and Sergi Roberto.

Kounde mainly chose Barcelona because he was excited to be part of Xavi’s project, but it was reported in Spain over the weekend that he is becoming concerned and frustrated by the situation and is keen to return to playing as soon as possible.

Xavi assured before the weekend, “The priority is to sign up Kounde.”

Memphis Depay is in talks with Juventus, which would help create the space for Kounde to be registered with La Liga. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is also open to joining Chelsea, who have offered €18m plus Barça target Marcos Alonso.

Both Memphis and Aubameyang have been named in the squad for Wednesday’s friendly, with Samuel Umtiti and Martin Braithwaite the only absentees.