Gerard Pique reportedly offered to play for Barcelona for free before accepting a salary reduction amid the club's current contract standoff with Frenkie de Jong.
The Catalan giants have been unable to register their five new signings and two contract renewals this summer with La Liga and have been told to reduce their financial outgoings. Meetings were held with Pique and Sergio Busquets last week to persuade them to reduce their salaries.
Busquets has agreed on wage deferral with Barca, which means that he will accept a reduction in his immediate payments, but that his owed wages would later be repaid to him over the course of his contract, which may be extended beyond next summer.
Busquet's agent Josep Maria Orobitg has agreed in principle with the club to reduce the midfielder's immediate salary – but the club will then owe the Spain international back payments in order to recompensate him for their agreed contract.
The situation of Pique is different; the veteran central defender has accepted a wage reduction with the club. A report in Diario AS outlines that he actually offered to play for free, although this suggestion was dismissed by Barca. It does however increase the scrutiny surrounding De Jong's future.
The Dutch international is Barca's highest earning player and is also owed an additional €17million in unpaid wages. The player's agents Ali Dursun and Hasan Centikaya met with Barca chiefs on Wednesday last week and are urging the Dutch midfielder to push to be paid what monies he is owed.
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De Jong was one of four players to pen new contracts in October 2020 alongside Marc-Andre Ter Stegen, Gerard Pique and Clement Lenglet – all sanctioned by the club's previous board, weeks prior to them resigning en mass. Barcelona are reportedly considering taking legal action over De Jong's contract.
Last summer, Pique took a salary cut to allow then-new signings Memphis Depay and Eric Garcia to be registered with La Liga before Busquets and Jordi Alba accepted pay cuts to allow Sergio Aguero to be registered. In January, Samuel Umtiti accepted a salary deduction – spread over a longer-term deal – to allow the club to sign Ferran Torres.
Andreas Christensen, Franck Kessie, Raphinha, Robert Lewandowski and Jules Kounde have all joined Barca's ranks this summer, but none will be available for selection until La Liga inform them that their contracts are viable with the club's financial situation. The same registration issue applies to Ousmane Dembele and Sergi Roberto, who both signed new contracts after their previous deals expired.
