The much-awaited loan deal involving Al Hilal's Joao Cancelo has started its first chapter. On Monday (January 5), FC Barcelona have sent their first official bid to Al Hilal regarding the Portugese left-back. The deal, reported by Fabrizio Romano, is also expected to cover a portion of Cancelo's salary but more information on that will be obtained in due course.
Last week, Al Hilal had in-depth discussions with Inter Milan who had also expressed their interest in Cancelo. That deal is verbally closed with the 31-year-old also very much interested in the offer. However, with Barcelona also now in the race, Cancelo is supposedly preferring the Spanish club if he were to choose between the two.
ALSO READ
- T20 World Cup 2026: Will Bangladesh's matches be moved from India to Sri Lanka? Reports suggest BIG update
- 'Don't ever dive......': Dwayne Bravo reveals MS Dhoni's memorable advice from CSK in IPL 2018
- Manchester United not signing Carlos Baleba in January means Liverpool gears up for summer transfer battle: Report
All this, of course, will only be of significance if Barcelona's offer is also equally tempting as Inter's, in which case Cancelo's preference would be the tie-breaker in the deal. If not for Barcelona's interest in him, Cancelo would already have signed on the dotted line for Inter.
Currently, Cancelo earns a reported annual salary of €18 million and Barcelona's financial crunch is an obstacle to covering even a percentage of this figure. Al Hilal have to still pay €9 million to Cancelo for this season and Inter's deal reportedly promises to cover approximately €3.5-4 million.
