After spending most of the day in a hotel waiting for bureaucratic snags to be ironed out, Anthony Gordon became Barcelona’s sixth most-expensive signing ever on Friday night.
The England winger, 25, declared he had wanted to play for the club since he was three years old and revealed he had been told about Barca’s interest in him ‘very late in the season’.
Gordon also surprised reporters here by giving extensive answers in Spanish.
‘I’m ready, excited and prepared for the challenge,’ he said in the local language, adding that he hoped to answer all questions in Spanish the next time he stood before reporters.
Asked how he had become fluent in Spanish, he said: ‘There is a physio at Newcastle who is Spanish and I told him I wanted to play for Barcelona so I practised Spanish with him.’
The bureaucratic hold-up delayed Gordon’s official unveiling by eight hours.
Anthony Gordon has joined Barcelona for £69.3million plus £8.7m in add-ons
His whirlwind signing has shocked supporters of the Catalan club – the extraordinary delay in confirmation because of ‘paperwork problems’ served as a reminder of Barcelona’s recent history as a financial basket case.
In a modest press conference room next to the club shop at the Camp Nou – a stadium that still part-resembles a building site and will not be completed until the end of next season – the press were told Gordon would be arriving three hours late for a presentation that had been scheduled for 1pm.
Barcelona insisted the delay, which eventually ran until 9pm, was not related to their recent history of financial fragility.
The club buying the winger from Newcastle have been engulfed in a self-inflicted financial storm for the best part of the last five years, forcing the departure of Lionel Messi in the summer of 2021 because they could simply no longer afford to pay his wages.
‘The deal is still on,’ waiting reporters were told. Gordon had to wait patiently in the five-star Torre Melina Gran Melia hotel on the famous Avenida Diagonal, just a 10-minute car-journey to the stadium, while Barcelona president Joan Laporta, vice-president Rafa Yuste and director of football Deco tried to close the deal.
‘It’s a dream come true,’ added Gordon. ‘I’m part of the best team in the world, thank you.
‘I always wanted Barca. It’s the biggest club on the planet. It’s the stuff I dreamed of as a child. It really is a dream come true.’
And of his day waiting in the hotel, he said: ‘I’ve been very calm at the hotel, just waiting with my family, with my agents, but I was very excited, so it was kind of hard to wait. I can’t explain (the delay). I don’t know, it’s stuff I don’t understand. All my part was done. I’ve been ready for two days now, so it was stuff above me, I think, legal things and the very small details.’
The former Newcastle winger said he had been dreaming of playing for them since childhood
Gordon joins for £69.3million, plus £8.7m in add-ons. The fee will be spread across the five years of his contract, allowing Barcelona to register with La Liga a spend of just £15.6m for this coming season, crucial in Spanish league chiefs allowing them to register the forward, who is part of Thomas Tuchel’s England squad for the World Cup in North America.
Gordon’s £200,000-a-week wages will represent a saving on the £400,000-a-week salary paid to Robert Lewandowski in the final year of his contract, which has just expired.
It’s how the club have been able to sign Gordon despite the constraints that limited their spend last summer to just £23m.
La Liga are expected to inform Barcelona next month that the financial restrictions placed on them over the last few years have been completely lifted. It is the news the club have been waiting for and it means they can, potentially, keep Gordon’s England team-mate Marcus Rashford if Manchester United agree to drop their asking price.
They will still need to sell, though, and Newcastle could yet help them do that. Real Betis winger Abde Ezzalzouli is among the favourites to replace Gordon at St James’ Park and the Morocco international, 24, is still 20 per cent owned by Barcelona. If Newcastle pay his £52m release clause, Barcelona would receive £10m from the deal.
The club are also close to selling forward Ansu Fati, formerly of Brighton, to Monaco for £10m.
Manchester United loanee Rashford provided 14 goals and 14 assists this season and the Spanish club have the option to make his deal permanent for £22.5m this summer.
However, they are planning to bid just over half that in the hope that Manchester United’s desire to get Rashford’s £325,000 salary off their wage bill – with the player still under contract at Old Trafford until 2028 – will force them to accept. If United hold out for the full price then Rashford will not start next season as a Barcelona player.
Barca are also targeting a cut-price deal for Marcus Rashford but need to make sales
Remaining in the Champions League is Rashford’s priority, which could open the door again to Aston Villa if Barca don’t end up signing him.
Barcelona coach Hansi Flick wants Rashford to stay. The German, who has won the La Liga title in each of his two seasons at the Camp Nou, has also been the driving force behind the club’s capture of Gordon.
Asked about Flick, Gordon added: ‘I was even more excited about joining the club after I spoke to him.’
The former Everton winger has the intensity and work-rate Flick wants for next season as Barca try to end an 11-year wait for a sixth Champions League title, having been knocked out in the quarter-finals this season.
Gordon will compete with Raphinha, if the 29-year-old former Leeds winger stays. He has had an injury-plagued season and could be offered to the Saudi Pro League.
The club are also pursuing a centre forward. Deco has already met with the agent of Chelsea’s Joao Pedro and the Brazilian is the alternative if they cannot sign Arsenal target Julian Alvarez from Atletico Madrid.
Barcelona are also close to bringing in Bernardo Silva on a free after the Portuguese midfielder left Manchester City.
