FC Barcelona bid goodbye to promising teenage wonderkid Pedro ‘Dro’ Fernandez during the January transfer window.
The 18-year-old La Masia graduate, who had made his first-team breakthrough earlier this season under Hansi Flick, signed for French champions PSG in the winter.
Dro’s contract had a €6 million release clause, and he decided to make use of it to secure a move away, even though in the end PSG ended up paying Barça around €8.5 million – thanks to the good relationship between the two clubs.
Barcelona taking measures
Given how things turned out, Barcelona are intent on avoiding a repeat of the ‘Dro case’ in the future, reports RAC1.
To that end, the La Liga champions are already taking measures to ensure that the scenario does not happen again.
As part of their strategy, Barça have temporarily halted renewals for youth talents at the academy as they seek to increase the release clause amounts inserted into their deals.
Dro joined Barcelona in January. (Picture credit: Instagram/@drofdezz)
From now on, any player who debuts for the Juvenil A (U19) side will have a release clause of €6 million in his contract.
Meanwhile, a debut for the reserve team, Barça Atletic, will see the release clause amount rise to €10 million.
And, in case an academy player makes his first-team debut for Barcelona, his release clause will be set at €100 million.
If these steps had been in place earlier, Dro’s clause would have been €100 million and not €6 million, which would have dissuaded PSG from making a move for him in January.
Prior to Dro, Barça also lost Marc Guiu to Chelsea under similar circumstances. As such, they wish to rectify it and are already making moves to ensure there is no repeat in the future.