Marc-André Ter Stegen suffered one of the most serious injuries of his career last Sunday during FC Barcelona’s 5-1 victory over Villarreal. After undergoing successful surgery on a torn patellar tendon in his right leg, the Blaugrana goalkeeper will be out for 7-8 months, meaning he will miss the rest of the season. From then on, Barca only had two options: wait until the January window or sign now. And they opted for the latter in order to have an experienced goalkeeper to accompany Iñaki Peña.
An option that has already been finalised and will be made official in the next few hours. FC Barcelona have closed the signing of Wojciech Szczesny. The Polish goalkeeper has reversed his retirement and will arrive in the next few hours in Barcelona to undergo a medical and become the new Barça goalkeeper. After a few frantic hours in the offices of the Camp Nou analysing the different options for the goal due to Ter Stegen’s serious injury, the sporting management has definitively opted for the Pole. According to the newspaper Sport, which travelled to Marbella where the former Juve goalkeeper is, Szczesny has already given the go-ahead to Barça. There is a “closed agreement” between the goalkeeper and the club and he will sign for one year with the option of an extension.
Barcelona can only use 80% of the cost of the German goalkeeper to sign a goalkeeper who does not have a club or any unemployed player. And they can only use it for that new player. Not for any budget balance. But How much does Ter Stegen earn at Barcelona and how much will Szczesny earn?
Salaries in goal
Marc-André Ter Stegen renewed his contract in 2023 for 5 years. And in addition to being the captain of the first team, he enjoys a millionaire salary. According to information provided by the media Signingsthe German receives Under the current agreement, this amounts to 6.3 million euros per year, which means that he earns 525,000 euros per month, 123,000 per week and 18,000 per day.
A salary much higher than that which his replacement will receive. The player reached a contract termination agreement that will see him earn 4 million euros without working. A kind of “Gardening Clause” that the Blaugrana club has already negotiated with Italy.
Gardening leave is a common feature of all F1 staff contracts. It is a kind of clause that does not allow an employee who moves from one team to another to start working at his new position immediately after leaving his current team, meaning that a staff member who decides to leave his team to join one of its rivals can be forced to take an entire season off from the competition. And that is exactly what Szczesny has. His announcement of his retirement came as a surprise, so the Italian team wanted to include a ‘small’ penalty in case the goalkeeper signed for a team in the coming months.
According to La Gazzeta, the Bianconeri will save 4 million euros by signing for Barça. The exit agreement included a clause that provided for a possible reduction of the 4 million euros agreed in the event of an agreement with another club. So, Juve will save the 4 million gross (about 2 million net) that it would have paid the former goalkeeper next year in a second instalment compared to the amount already paid (2.5 million net) at the time of the agreement.
That is to say, the Blaugranas will have to pay two million to the Italian club and the goalkeeper would earn around two million euros net for wearing the Barça shirt this season. His teammate Iñaki Peña, who will have to compete for his position, has an annual salary of 3.2 million, which means a monthly income of 271,000 euros this season.
With the financial issue resolved, Barça still has another problem to resolve, as sources in Catalonia suggest that the Polish goalkeeper demands to be a starter.