Barcelona star Gavi could leave the Catalan club for free this summer, after a court ruling effectively reversed his standing as a senior first-team player.
The bizarre situation will see the 18-year-old's club status reverted to that of an academy player, which includes a clause that will allow him to leave for nothing if he is not registered as full first team player by 30 June 2023.
And that remarkable development will put a host of top clubs across Europe on red-alert, including Liverpool, who were linked with the teenager during the January transfer window.
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Gavi's Barcelona predicament is as complex as it is unusual and arrives amid high tension between the club and LaLiga. According to The Athletic, when the midfielder signed a contract extension in September 2022, he was still registered as member of Barcelona's Academy.
The Catalan club attempted to register their young star as a first-team player during the January transfer window, but as the month drew to a close they had still not upgraded his status as salary cap issues meant LaLiga would not allow Barca to complete the registration. The club then took last-minute legal action in an attempt to force the governing body to ratify the new status.
On January 31, a Barcelona court ordered LaLiga to register Gavi as a first-team player via a temporary injunction, while also giving the Nou Camp outfit 20 days to file a case to help agree a permanent resolution. But when Barca submitted their case on March 2, LaLiga challenged the submission, claiming that the club had missed the deadline by a day.
After Barcelona were given five days to respond to the claim by LaLiga, the court finally made a ruling on Tuesday and lifted the temporary injunction. It means that Gavi's first-team registration must now return to that of an academy player, bringing his original release clause back into play.
LaLiga has said that it will change Gavi's registration 'over the coming days'. Barcelona have claimed that they submitted the paperwork on time and have told The Athletic that they intend to appeal the ruling.
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