On August 6, Barcelona’s sporting director Deco flew to Leipzig, Germany, to finalise his first major signing since being appointed to that role in 2023.
The former midfielder returned to Spain two days later on a private jet with Dani Olmo, the player’s father, Miguel, his agent, Andy Bara, and an agreement in principle to sign the Spain playmaker from RB Leipzig.
Olmo’s Barca signing was announced on August 9, but days before that, deeper discussions took place at the club’s headquarters.
Deco showed Barca’s financial department the figures that a deal for Olmo involved. It was a six-year contract with a transfer fee in the region of €60million ($62m; £50m at current exchange rates), including add-ons.
After analysing the deal and taking into account the club’s difficult financial situation, Barca’s financial advisors said their recommendation was not to sign Olmo as they anticipated risks over his future registration.
Despite that recommendation, the club decided to proceed with the signing.
(Manaure Quintero/AFP/Getty Images)
Olmo was registered three games into La Liga — and this was a measure that only lasted for the first half of the season (more on that later). When Barca failed to meet the December 31 deadline to register him for the second half of the campaign, the 26-year-old had to face up to the prospect of not being able to play for the club he rejoined last summer. This week, the Spanish government gave the club temporary permission to register Olmo and fellow summer arrival Pau Victor until the matter is resolved.
Here, The Athletic explains how the saga unfolded from Olmo’s signing last summer. We spoke to people with knowledge of the deal, behind-the-scenes developments with Olmo and Victor, and the legal wrangling involved, all of whom asked to remain anonymous to protect relationships.
Barcelona declined to comment on the details in this article.
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The first outstanding Barcelona player to be registered before the new season was centre-back Inigo Martinez, with the club using the long-term injury suffered by Ronald Araujo at the Copa America to their advantage.
The Catalans’ wage bill was above the salary limit La Liga set for them last summer, which meant they were limited in players they could register with the competition. But La Liga’s rulebook outlines an exception: when a player is injured for more than four months, the club can use 80 per cent of their salary space to register a new player on their books.
Martinez was then able to play for Barca in their first game of the season at Valencia on August 17. Barca academy product Marc Casado was also registered along with new signing Victor.
Barca paid Girona €3million to sign Victor permanently after his successful season-long loan with Barca Atletic, their reserve team who play in the Spanish third tier. The 23-year-old striker became the star of the pre-season tour of the United States with three goals. Barca registered him, but their salary limit restrictions meant his playing licence was only valid until the January transfer window.
Victor found himself in the same position as Olmo before the January transfer window (Jaime Reina/AFP/Getty Images)
Olmo remained unregistered — and it did not sit well with him. He felt disbelief for the first time since rejoining his boyhood club when coach Hansi Flick tried to gloss over his absence by saying he “was not at full fitness yet”.
Even before his signing was finalised, Olmo had concerns over Barcelona’s financial situation. Fresh in his mind was the example of Martinez, who he has played with for Spain and who Barca registered at the last minute in both of his summers at the club. Olmo discussed his case in the dressing room with Spain team-mates in the past.
Given the prospect of only being registered for the first half of the season, Olmo and his camp requested Barca make a slight tweak to his contract.
Barcelona’s executives assured the player there would be no issues for him to play from January. As newspaper Mundo Deportivo first revealed, Olmo’s camp demanded to insert a clause in his deal that allowed him to leave for free if that promise was not fulfilled by the next transfer window. The club accepted this and the exit clause was inserted.
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Olmo’s lifeline arrived on August 26 when Andreas Christensen suffered an Achilles injury that allowed Barca to use the long-term injury exception once again. But Olmo’s significant salary only allowed him to be registered for four months, as with Victor.
Figures with knowledge of La Liga’s salary limit rules told The Athletic the possibility of registering players for one half of the season had not been considered in the rulebook until last summer.
The day after being registered, Olmo came on for his debut against Rayo Vallecano. He was a half-time substitute and scored the winner in a hard-fought 2-1 win. By the end of November, he had scored five goals in eight La Liga games and one in three Champions League appearances.
In December, Olmo trademarked the usage of his goal celebration in the European Union — a move in which he points to his wrist as if he were wearing a watch. Olmo was inspired by one of his favourite athletes, the NBA star Damian Lillard, who made it his ‘Dame Time’ signature move. But the celebration ended up illustrating Barca’s race against time to have him registered.
(Denis Doyle/Getty Images)
In September, his first assumption after having his registration confirmed was that Barca would fix things for good when a new deal with kit supplier Nike was finalised.
Barca were also understood to have a decent relationship with La Liga, with the competition’s president Javier Tebas praising the efforts the club had made to balance the books.
“Barcelona are in a better situation to what people are saying right now,” Tebas said on September 19 in an interview with YouTube podcast The Wild Project. “They have a wage bill of €420m at the moment. But they have some deals in place, such as the one with Nike, that will help them a lot if they seal it. (Joan) Laporta has reduced their salary expenditure by €200m.”
Barca had been briefing all summer that they were on the verge of agreeing a longer, improved deal with Nike, but this did not actually happen until November 9.
Olmo and Victor did not know the Nike deal was far from enough. Barca sources say the club negotiated a signing bonus worth €100m as part of the deal, which they initially planned to count as new income to boost their salary limit.
Olmo talking to team-mates before the Supercopa semi-final against Athletic Club (Jose Breton/Pics Action/NurPhoto/Getty Images)
But La Liga’s regulations do not allow that. La Liga did not see the Nike contract as a new source of commercial income but the extension of a previous deal. According to the competition, new money from existing contracts must be spread across all the years the deal has been extended. This meant the signing bonus had no real impact on Olmo and Victor’s situation.
Barca had to come up with backup plans. On December 10, The Athletic reported the club were exploring the possibility of selling a share of their VIP seating in the revamped Camp Nou, which remains unfinished.
Seven days later, club president Joan Laporta revealed in a private event with Barcelona-based reporters that his side had filed a complaint to a commercial court requesting Olmo and Victor’s registration, on the grounds that footballers had a right to freely practise their careers.
Senior club figures told The Athletic a legal dispute was their preferred choice to fix the situation. They had high hopes, and a positive outcome would mean there was no need to sell the rights to the VIP seats at the Camp Nou. The court resolution was expected on December 27, though — which would make things tight.
On December 20, Olmo’s father, Miguel, met with Barcelona executives alongside the family’s trusted sports lawyer, Ramon Valencia, at the club’s training facilities to discuss the club’s legal strategy.
But they suffered a blow four days from the end of 2024 when the city’s commercial court rejected Barcelona’s case. The club submitted an appeal to a separate court, which was also rejected on December 30.
That last appeal featured a telling comparison from the judge in his resolution: “(Barcelona) would have hired the person to cover for someone on maternity/paternity leave before knowing if someone pregnant existed.”
It is worth noting that Barca did not file a complaint to the court requesting Victor be registered. Their appeal referred to Olmo only, despite the young striker being in exactly the same situation.
Nerves were beginning to fray. Olmo’s camp publicly said he had faith in the club, but the player planned a Christmas trip to Milwaukee to attend an NBA game — in part to isolate himself and disconnect from the daily noise about his future in Barcelona.
Plan A (the Nike signing bonus) had failed. Plan B (a complaint in the commercial court) had not worked out. So, in the last two days of the year, Barcelona had an urgent need to trigger Plan C: the sale of VIP seating rights.
At this point, Olmo and Victor were fearing for their future at the club and shared their concerns with their team-mates.
For months, Laporta had been making multiple trips to the Middle East, where the club laid out the foundations of the sale. On December 30, conversations accelerated and the club reached an agreement with a sponsor who would buy the rights. The sponsor’s identity remains unknown.
Barca said that between that day and December 31, they sent the signed contracts and all required documentation to La Liga, which had to check and approve the deal.
Laporta and his board spent the day of New Year’s Eve working at the club’s offices next to the Camp Nou before leaving for their final dinner of the year with their families. They left the offices knowing La Liga would not approve the deal.
Laporta had been making trips to the Middle East for months to try to sell the rights to Barca’s VIP seats (Javier Borrego/Europa Press/Getty Images)
Competition sources told The Athletic they could not process Barca’s request as they could not find proof of payment for the rights to the VIP seats.
After the club did not receive all the money they had budgeted when selling 49 per cent of their Barca Studios media arm in 2022 — one of the infamous “levers” used to register new signings that summer transfer window — La Liga needed to see 20 per cent of the VIP seating payment (around €25m) as confirmation.
Club sources, meanwhile, said the payment had been made but that the Christmas festivities meant the bank transfer would take more days to complete.
In a response on X to a journalist who criticised his handling of the situation, La Liga president Tebas used the word “MENTIRA” (lie) after each allegation, but did not deny Barca had sent La Liga a signed contract by the end of the year.
Sobre tu post,te comemto @jorgecalabres , aunque dices que has dejado de fumar, te has fumado un”porro” para escribir tu post.
“Caso Olmo:
– Primero se le dice al Barça que sirve con el nuevo contrato de Nike.MENTIRA
– No sirve finalmente y se busca otra solución.
– El 31 de…— Javier Tebas Medrano (@Tebasjavier) January 8, 2025
Flick’s team returned to training after their holidays on December 29, with club figures assuring Olmo and Victor before training sessions that they would be registered.
But La Liga followed its rulebook methodically: Olmo and Victor were effectively scratched off the competition’s records as Barca players as soon as 2025 began.
That led to an extra layer of anxiety for both players. The tension was so high that both players’ families were constantly in touch with each other on a daily basis to share their thoughts and go through the process. The frustration over a lack of clarity from the club and their requests for patience was high.
Hansi Flick (Josep Lago/AFP via Getty Images)
The first person to face questions on the Olmo and Victor saga was Flick in a January 3 press conference before their Copa del Rey game against lower-league Barbastro.
“From before Christmas until today, I have been in contact with the president,” said Flick. “I have full confidence in the club, they do their job and I do mine.
“If I’m honest, I am not happy with the situation, but it is what it is and we need to be professionals. I am optimistic, but often you have to wait for the decisions to be taken.”
Flick, who spoke to the players and tried to comfort them, became increasingly frustrated by the situation. He asked club executives to get in touch with Olmo and Victor, as he could not give them any legal assurances.
Laporta had his first face-to-face meeting with Olmo and Victor in 2025 before the cup game. He sent a positive message, saying the registration would eventually be finalised and pleaded for extra patience.
The president and his board spent another full day at the club’s offices on January 3. It was around midday when Barca received the full money transfer from the VIP seating sale, forwarding it to La Liga.
Barcelona’s legal team were also in touch with the Spanish Federation (the RFEF) and requested new licences for Olmo and Victor, who they claimed were in a “force majeure” situation — an exception in the RFEF rulebook to allow a player to be re-registered. But the RFEF responded to say they could not do that without the green light from La Liga.
Olmo and Victor were effectively scratched off La Liga’s records as Barca players (Ander Gillennea/AFP via Getty Images)
Laporta and his board stayed at their offices waiting for news until 12.10am on January 4. That night, the president shared — mistakenly, according to club sources — what appeared to be a letter from the RFEF showing its willingness to accept Olmo and Victor’s registrations. Federation sources were unimpressed by that.
But board members left the building with a smile on their faces — Barca confirmed they had approval from La Liga on their VIP seating lever. The money was there, enabling the club to leave behind their severe restrictions in terms of their salary limit.
The president’s happiness turned sour the next day. On January 4, La Liga and RFEF issued a joint statement in which they rejected Barca’s claim to register their players. The club had shown proof of the VIP seating money, but this had arrived after the December 31 deadline for Olmo and Victor.
The problems mounted for Laporta on January 5, when opposing presidential candidates, fan groups and member associations released a statement calling for consequences after the Olmo and Victor drama.
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Barcelona had already decided on their next step: filing a new legal complaint with the Consejo Superior de Deportes (CSD), the country’s highest sports institution, which is part of the government.
They asked the CSD for temporary permission to register both players before a resolution on a deeper legal case was taken. The CSD had the ability to overrule the decision by La Liga and the RFEF.
Barca filed their complaint on January 7 and the CSD had five working days to respond. Meanwhile, Raphinha spoke in Saudi Arabia before the team’s Supercopa semi-final against Bilbao’s Athletic Club and said the saga could have an impact on prospective Barca players in future.
“If I was in another club seeing the situation they are going through, I would probably wonder if coming here is the best option,” Barca’s Brazilian winger said.
(Rico Brouwer/Soccrates/Getty Images)
On January 8, Flick’s team were on their way to Jeddah’s King Abdullah stadium to play their semi-final when major news dropped: the CSD had accepted Barcelona’s complaint and would grant both players a temporary registration with La Liga.
Barca’s squad celebrated on the team bus. Olmo was pictured smiling as he entered the stadium, despite he and Victor being unable to feature in the semi-final as the re-registration needed an extra day to be effective.
Laporta celebrated effusively in the stadium. He was recorded by Catalan television station TV3 shouting and making a rude gesture with his arms.
There were immediate reactions from Deco, Athletic Club president Jon Uriarte and Tebas on social media after the game. Uriarte told Movistar: “We are seeing things which are ridiculous. Cases like this don’t do any favours to Spanish football.”
Barca won 2-0 to progress to the Supercopa final on Sunday and Gavi dedicated his goal to Olmo, performing the watch celebration.
CSD sources consulted by The Athletic said the temporary permission for Olmo and Victor is expected to last three months. This is the organisation’s timeframe to launch a wider legal dispute, where it will listen to allegations from La Liga and the Federation. A final ruling will then be made.
On Friday, La Liga filed a new appeal against CSD’s decision to grant Olmo and Victor temporary permission to play. Their aim is that a Spanish administrative court can take the players’ registrations down again after multiple complaints from fellow La Liga clubs about the decision.
For now, Barca know they can count on Olmo and Victor. If the case takes three months, it means Olmo and Victor will be able to play in at least 15 games across all competitions, including the Supercopa final against Real Madrid, a crucial La Liga match against Atletico Madrid, and games against three of the bottom five sides in La Liga (Getafe, Valencia and Alaves).
That also includes the final two matches of the Champions League first phase, as well as any potential round of 16 play-off match and the round of 16 proper. They would be able to play in all of the Copa del Rey’s knockout rounds before the final on April 26.
But the saga involving Olmo and Victor is far from over.
(Top photos: Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton)
