On El Larguero’s account, the Alejandro Balde story had one fixed point all summer: the player did not want to go. That has moved. According to Barça Universal, relaying the Spanish radio programme, Balde is now open to leaving Barcelona after being left out of the squad at Elche and hearing Hansi Flick explain why in public.
That matters more than any of the numbers flying around, because Manchester United’s interest, the fee and the replacement plan have all been circling a player whose own answer was, on most accounts, no. Not every account: Jijantes FC reported on 22 August that he had already decided to seek an exit, a version Mundo Deportivo’s sources rejected that evening. Here is what this piece covers:
- What changed in Balde’s thinking, and when
- The five episodes that took the file to “not ruling it out”
- What Manchester United are reported to be preparing, and the price England quotes
- Why this could still end with Balde in a Barça shirt
- What Tuesday’s summit at the Ciutat Esportiva means for the week ahead
Five episodes that changed the Alejandro Balde file
In a column for Mundo Deportivo, Xavier Bosch lays the sequence out as five episodes. It begins on the Thursday, when Jorge Mendes arrives for João Cancelo’s presentation and then sits down with Deco about Marc Casadó and Balde. On the Saturday, Bosch reads Flick’s pre-match press conference as opening the exit door to both Jules Koundé and Balde. Flick’s own on-record words, reported by Mundo Deportivo’s Jordi Cardero, were about the group rather than any individual: “It’s a club situation, we’re making a lot of changes. We have to wait until the end of the market.”
On the Sunday morning Balde is not in the squad list for Elche. Bosch notes the recognised full-backs on the list are Cancelo and Pesquer, and that it is Xavi Espart — an academy right-back — who ends up playing on the left, and in his view plays well. Then, before kick-off, Flick tells Movistar Plus, in comments carried by Mundo Deportivo: “I spoke with Alejandro Balde this morning. I told him that he is not at one hundred percent, that it is better that he stays at home, and that we will talk later.” After the 5-0 he softens it — he is not asking Balde to leave, he says; he simply told him he has the feeling the player is not fully focused, asked him to order his thoughts, and they would speak the next day, which Balde accepted. Bosch’s reading is his own, and unsparing: in his view Flick took Balde apart in instalments, not to win him back but to move him on for a good fee.
Balde open to leaving Barcelona: what changed inside his camp
It was the public part that stung
The detail that matters is not the omission — Barça won 5-0 without him. What El Larguero describe, through Santi Ovalle, is a player blindsided by the venue rather than the verdict. “He did not expect this public message from Flick dropping him from the squad,” Ovalle said. “He didn’t want to leave, but now, given the situation, he’s not ruling it out.”
Set that against last Thursday, when he was on the record about his own future, acknowledging that he knew there was a lot of talk about him — the day Balde broke his silence on the exit rumours. He was not angling for a move. Flick’s remarks, made into a microphone rather than behind a door, appear to have done what weeks of Premier League interest could not.
Manchester United, and what they are said to be preparing
United have been the constant. Mundo Deportivo’s Gabriel Sans surveyed the English press and reports that Old Trafford is being framed there as the most likely destination — though, Sans writes, those same outlets admit that no agreement exists and that there are contradictory versions about whether Balde himself wants the move. Worth holding on to, that caveat.
Within that survey: The Guardian list him among the moves that could still happen before the deadline and present him as a possible answer to United’s defensive problems. Sky Sports call him a priority target and read his absence at Elche as more than significant. talkSPORT go furthest, with Sans reporting that United would be preparing a proposal of €40 million. The Sun, by contrast, talk about a departure of around €25m, say Flick left him out because he considers the player needs to “clear his head”, and argue that competition from Cancelo and Gerard Martín has complicated his position badly. In a separate line, the same paper is said to specify that United would already have contacted the player’s camp — which is why, Sans writes, none of those figures should be taken as definitive.
The logic on United’s side, as Mundo Deportivo relay it, would be straightforward: the club want a left-back as competition and cover for Luke Shaw, and Balde would be more affordable than other targets on their list. Sans adds that Barça would be willing to sell because they need funds to strengthen other positions.
The numbers, and the distance between them
And Barcelona’s side of it? As we reported when United signalled a preference for a loan with an option to buy, ESPN put the Blaugrana’s asking price at €30-40m for a permanent sale — one figure in a reported range that has run higher elsewhere this month. Sans notes the contract runs to 2028 and the release clause is extremely high, so nobody is coming through a back door: anything that happens, happens because Barça agree to it.
Stack the figures up and not one of them clears the price ESPN report. The Sun’s €25m sits below the band; talkSPORT’s €40m only just reaches the top of it. That is the gap a deal would have to close in a matter of days.
The case for calm: why this may still not happen
“Not ruling it out” is not pushing to leave, and Monday’s session at Sant Joan Despí cut against the drama. Mundo Deportivo’s Roger Torelló reported that Balde trained normally with the group when the squad returned to work, while Casadó and Héctor Fort continue to work apart from the main session with their departures still to be resolved. That is a meaningful distinction: Balde is inside the group, waiting on the conversation Flick promised him.
There is also what Barça would be left with. Cancelo is now a permanent signing and Gerard Martín can cover the left, but selling a 22-year-old academy left-back under contract to 2028, this late, is a decision that is easy to explain in August and hard in February. The replacement thinking that has surfaced is not even like-for-like: The Athletic report, relayed by Barça Blaugranes, that a Balde departure could put Barcelona in the market for another defender, and that RB Leipzig’s Castello Lukeba — whom Flick is said to admire — is a name they may go for. Barça Universal’s version adds that the club believe they lack a specialist left-sided centre-back, so the signing need not be a left-back at all. That file is conditional, as we set out in our look at Barça’s Balde replacement plan, and it depends on a sale happening first.
What happens next
The clock is the story now. On Tuesday morning Joan Laporta arrived at the Ciutat Esportiva, with technical meetings planned with the sporting department and with Flick. The items on that table, per Mundo Deportivo: the exits of Casadó and, potentially, Balde; clarifying Koundé’s future; and holding the line on Julián Álvarez.
The promised Flick-Balde conversation is now the hinge of the whole thing — if it goes well, this is a story about a bruising week; if it does not, the English reports give United somewhere to start. And Barça’s calendar does not allow for a slow resolution: Thursday brings the rearranged Matchday 1 at home to Athletic Club, the first home league game of the season at the Spotify Camp Nou, and Flick will have to name a squad. Whether Balde is in it will tell Culers more than any briefing.
The verdict
Balde being open to leaving Barcelona is a change in temperature, not yet a change in destination. No offer has been confirmed by either club — the ones reported so far, COPE’s “firm proposal” and Helena Condis’s “serious offer”, remain unconfirmed — no agreement exists, no new valuation has come from the club, and the player is still training with the squad. What has changed is that the door Balde had been holding shut all summer is no longer held by anyone. With the window in its closing stretch and a striker still to buy, that is enough. More on the money side of it in our breakdown of the sales Barça are chasing from Casadó, Balde and Fort.
