Barcelona to offer €30m for Chelsea defender as a replacement for club legend Carles Puyol, who has confirmed his is quitting the Nou Camp in the summer.
Barcelona have renewed their interest in Chelsea’s David Luiz with the confirmation that Carles Puyol will leave the Spanish club this summer.
ALSO IN THIS SECTION
Offside! Gary Barlow to sing on England's World Cup song
Roy Hodgson hits out at 'Ban Tom Cleverley from the World Cup squad' petition by fans
Allams: We've nothing left to give
A bid of €30mis expected for the 26-year-old Brazil international.
Barcelona hope to conclude a deal swiftly before the World Cup finals kick off in June, with Luiz an important figure in Luiz Felipe Scolari’s Brazil squad.
Barcelona had a formal bid for Luiz rejected last summer by Chelsea, with manager Jose Mourinho adamant that the defender was not for sale.
Although Luiz is not agitating for a move it is understood that he would be keen to join Barcelona and, given Mourinho’s recruitment plans – he has acquired French central defender Kurt Zouma from Saint-Etienne and holding midfielder Nemanja Matic from Benfica– he may consider selling.
If Luiz were allowed to leave it would be another sign that Mourinho still have faith in Chelsea captain John Terry, 33, who is set to be offered a one-year contact extension.
Barcelona may have to offer far more than €30m, however, to acquire Luiz who was signed by Carlo Ancelotti from Benfica in a deal that was worth £21.5m plus Matic.
Chelsea rejected Barcelona’s advances last summer, insisting that they wanted more than €60m for Luiz in a successful attempt to kill any effort to negotiate.
Barcelona are understood to have offered only just over €23m and while they are planning an increased bid, it may still not be enough to tempt Chelsea, with Mourinho ¬continuing to publicly insist Luiz remains in his plans.
Bayern Munich also showed interest in Luiz, stopping short of making a formal offer, but Barcelona were always front-runners. Should he leave Chelsea Luiz will not remain in the Premier League.
Luiz is regarded as a big ¬personality as well as a good player and is a strong character in the dressing room. There was some frustration with him at Chelsea earlier this season with the sense that he might have been unhappy at not being granted a move to Barcelona.
Puyol, meanwhile, confirmed ¬yesterday that he would be leaving Barcelona at the end of the season.
The 35-year-old Spain international had a contract with Barça until 2016 but has reached an agreement with the club to rescind the final two years of the deal.
Puyol, who has spent his entire career at Barcelona so far and made his first-team debut in 1999, made the announcement at a press conference. He said: “I want to announce that at the end of the season I will no longer be a Barcelona player. There are three months of the season left and I will not give up. I will help the team.”
