Barcelona have agreed to sell Ferran Torres to Paris Saint-Germain for a fixed fee of €50m, a figure carefully calculated to spare the Spanish club from having to hand a significant chunk of the money to Manchester City.
Torres, who starred for Spain at the 2026 World Cup, has been kept out of first-team training in recent days to protect him from injury as the move edges towards completion. He is expected to travel to Paris in the coming hours to finalise his switch to the French champions.
The 26-year-old has less than a year left on his Barcelona contract, and the Catalan club have long been willing to let him leave this summer.
Personal terms with PSG were sorted out quickly once Torres gave his blessing to the move, leaving only a club-to-club agreement to be worked out. That has now been struck at a flat €50m fee, according to Cadena SER.
Clause from Torres’ 2022 Man City exit shaped the fee
The size of that fee is no accident. Torres joined Barcelona from Manchester City in a deal worth around €55m back in 2022, and City inserted a clause at the time entitling them to a further €10m if Barcelona ever sold him on for €55m or more.
By settling on €50m rather than a higher figure, Barcelona have avoided triggering that payment altogether.
City also stood to benefit from a separate clause tied to any contract renewal Torres might have signed at Camp Nou, reportedly worth a further €8m. By allowing his deal to run down instead of extending it, Barcelona have sidestepped that obligation as well.
Taken together, the Catalans reckon the true value of offloading Torres now, factoring in the roughly €18m they avoid sending to the Etihad, is closer to €73m.
It is another reminder of how thoroughly Manchester City, under the ownership of the City Football Group, have wired sell-on and bonus clauses into their outgoing transfers in recent years, ensuring the club continues to profit from players long after they have left the Etihad.
City in transition under Maresca
The development comes during a summer of change at Manchester City, who appointed Enzo Maresca as their new head coach after his title-winning spell in charge of Chelsea.
Maresca has been overseeing his own reshaping of City’s squad, and any windfall from clauses attached to former players such as Torres would add useful flexibility to the club’s transfer business as he looks to put his stamp on the team.
Torres spent two seasons at City after joining from Valencia, winning the Premier League and FA Cup during his time in Manchester before making the move to Barcelona in 2022.
He went on to win the La Liga and Copa del Rey with the Catalan club, though injuries and inconsistent form limited his impact in his final campaigns there.
His departure continues a busy summer of business for Barcelona, who are also working on other deals as they look to balance the books while strengthening Hansi Flick’s squad.
For City, meanwhile, the clauses attached to Torres’ Barcelona career are a small but telling detail in a period of significant upheaval at the club, as Maresca settles into his new role and the football operation looks to build on the foundations left by his predecessor.
