Barcelona have been startled by Jules Kounde’s sudden desire to leave the club just one year after joining from Sevilla, sources have told 90min.
The France international has been an integral part of Xavi’s side this term, wrestling back La Liga from Real Madrid and winning their first title since 2019.
However, reports from Spain on Tuesday revealed that Kounde has grown increasingly frustrated with being played at right-back as opposed to his natural centre-back and will look to engineer an exit from Camp Nou.
90min understands that Barcelona are surprised with this development and are not impressed with Kounde.
Barca’s financial woes and need to meet La Liga’s feasibility plans means they may need to sell key players in order to bring in top transfer targets. Kounde was not someone thought to have been on the chopping block but his sudden change of heart could change the club’s stance.
Barcelona director Mateu Alemany was asked about Kounde’s future on Tuesday evening, but insisted that the club will ‘resolve internal situations internally’.
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Kounde is on huge wages at Barcelona and they would demand a fee of roughly €80m, which could make him hard to shift despite his intentions to find a new club.
Barcelona are known admirers of Bayern Munich’s Benjamin Pavard – another French defender comfortable at right-back and centre-back – and there have been suggestions they could try and package a deal that would send Kounde to Bavaria in return.
90min reported last week that Barcelona are also among a list of elite European clubs that have been alerted to the possible availability of Bayern midfielder Joshua Kimmich.
Kounde was courted by Chelsea – then manged by current Bayern boss Thomas Tuchel – for two years prior to last summer’s move to Catalonia. Newcastle have also shown an interest in Kounde in the not too distant past.
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On this week’s edition of Talking Transfers, part of the 90min podcast network, Scott Saunders is joined by Toby Cudworth and Graeme Bailey to discuss all the latest transfer news. On the agenda: Tottenham’s pursuit of Feyenoord manager Arne Slot, Bayern Munich’s interest in Declan Rice, Joshua Kimmich, Neymar & more!
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