Problems for Barça. Nikola Mirotic continues to belong to the Barça squad as of July 1 and, therefore, his contract will have to count towards the team’s budget for 2023-24. Various media pointed out that Barcelona had to get rid of the Spanish-Montenegrin before last night, something that they have not managed to do as there is no destination or reach an agreement for the termination of the contract. This prevents the reduction planned by President Joan Laporta from being effective or as desired by the manager, who said that they could not maintain a budget of 40 million euros in the basketball section. “It is not about generating more income, but about reducing wages”, he assured then.
Barça and Mirotic announced that they would part ways at the end of the season. The star confirmed it in an interview with Mundo Deportivo, so his departure was a fact before the Endesa League final was played, in which Barça beat Madrid (3-0) with Mirotic de MVP. Of course, Nikola has a valid contract and July 1 was the deadline for his money not to appear in the budgets. As an agreement has not been reached, the consequent taxation must be faced, as assured by the journalist specializing in European basketball, Donatas Urbonas.
This supposes a problem for the Barça, that he will continue looking for the best option for the player to leave (Olympiacos, Monaco), while his contract is already in the books of accounts. Mirotic has two years left on his contract with Barça, which would mean spending 22 million euros gross. A money that the Catalans are not willing to assume. Here are the two points of the narrative, which clash with each other: the blaugrana entity assures that neither the star nor the environment have wanted to renegotiate a contract reduction, while Mirotic says that he has never been offered such a thing and that the club’s decision has been unilateralwithout trying to reduce your salary at any time.
Now, it only remains to be seen how the situation is resolved. Barça and Mirotic will go their separate ways, but it remains to be seen which team will assume the star’s expensive salary, which project he ends up in and of what magnitude it will be. Mirotic’s time at Barça, like that of Sarunas Jasikevicius (who also leaves the club) has resulted in several successes at a national level, but without the long-awaited Euroleague despite three consecutive participations in the Final Four. A notch in the project that has precipitated, along with salary adjustments, an early end.