Uncertainty at Barça: What will happen to Oriol Romeu and Héctor Fort?

The board of FC Barcelona hopes to resolve the departures of Oriol Romeu and Héctor Fort shortly. The midfielder returned to the club this summer after a year on loan at Girona, but Hansi Flick is not counting on him and, therefore, did not call him up for the Asian tour.

The right-back, meanwhile, has been relegated to a residual role after the very high level of Jules Koundé the previous year and the unexpected appearance of Eric García as a replacement for the Frenchman in the final stretch of 24/25.

During the preseason, the coaching staff has maintained its plan with '23' and '24' as the first alternatives for the right side. Despite Iñigo Martínez's departure, it is not expected that the player from Paris will return to the center of the defense, which means Fort is left without a place in the squad.

Barça is working on terminating Oriol Romeu's contract

With Oriol, the solution to his departure points to a termination of contract. The player from Ulldecona signed two years ago until 2026, but no team has been interested in his transfer. Girona has opened the doors for him to return to Montilivi, as long as he does so as a free agent.

However, Barça is only willing to give him a letter of freedom if the 33-year-old player agrees to forgo the remaining salary in his contract. Romeu invoices about 3.5 million euros gross per year and the club does not plan to take charge of this figure. Neither does Girona, which already negotiated his return on loan last year.

In his time at Barcelona, the midfielder played 39 official matches in which he added one assist. Xavi Hernández gradually reduced his prominence as the months passed in 23/24 and, after the departure of the 'egarense', Flick opted for Marc Bernal and Marc Casadó as pivots while Frenkie de Jong and Gavi returned from their injuries.

Héctor Fort, renewal and loan departure on track

With Fort, although he also has a contract for only one more year, the idea is to renew him before sending him on loan to another team this summer. The full-back extended his contract until 2026 in May 2024, but agreed to sign again until 2029 once he turned 18.

Well, the '32' arrived at 19 springs last August 2, still without signing his new link with the club, but still with full willingness to do so. Héctor knows that it will be very difficult to play in Flick's Barça and the best thing is to go on loan to a team where he can have greater regularity.

In principle, the idea was to send him to another club in LaLiga, but recently Paris FC's interest arose, an interesting option for the youth player. Abroad, the other alternative is Borussia Dortmund, but the Germans have not yet made any formal offer for him.

In 24/25, Fort barely played 710 minutes in 21 matches. During the Asian tour he also did not have too much prominence (he played 47' in three matches) and his substitution in the Gamper seems to confirm the plans of the coaching staff. Eric García will alternate the right side with Jules Koundé, while Gerard Martín and Jofre Torrents will do the same covering Alejandro Balde's back.