Madrid: FC Barcelona and Tottenham Hotspur have confirmed the agreement for Barca’s French international defender Clement Lenglet to spend the coming season on loan with the Premier League club.
The move comes after Barcelona’s signing of Danish international Andreas Christensen on a free transfer from Chelsea, which pushes Lenglet further down the pecking order at the Camp Nou, behind Gerard Pique, Ronald Araujo and Eric Garcia.
Lenglet joined Barcelona from Sevilla in 2018, but the left-sided centre-half struggled last season, starting just seven La Liga games and committing several important mistakes.
The move, agreed to on Friday, does not include an option for Tottenham to make the loan permanent, with the English club paying a flat fee for the loan, as well as paying a percentage of the player’s wages, reports Xinhua.
Barcelona once again struggle to meet La Liga’s strict financial fair-play rules and need to lower their wage bill to make further incorporations into the first team squad.
Although the deal was delayed slightly by problems with Lenglet’s work permit, he becomes Tottenham’s fifth signing of the summer after Ivan Perisic, Fraser Forster, Yves Bissouma and Richarlison.
–IANS