As reported by SPORT, Eric Garcia is likely to leave Barcelona for Real Betis this summer.

The report states that both Betis and Barça have an excellent working relationship and that the recent appointment of Ramon Planes as director at Estadio Benito Villamarin will only strengthen the relationship.

Currently, the two teams are said to be negotiating a loan deal for Nico Gonzalez. And it’s more than likely Garcia will go with him as he knows that getting regular minutes in the 2023-24 season will be quite difficult at Barça given the competition and the arrival of Inigo Martinez.

Garcia arrives in Barcelona in the summer of 2021. In his early days, he remained the unstoppable star of Ronald Koeman but lost his place since Xavi’s arrival. Now, his performance as a temporary defensive midfielder has been impressive but the player doesn’t want to waste any more time becoming a team player.

As for Betis, Garica’s choice was presented to them by Ramon Planes, who brought him to Barcelona during his time with the Catalan side. The sporting director now wants to strengthen Manuel Pellegrini’s squad and to do that, an initial loan move with a buy option is being discussed by the teams.

Now, if Garcia leaves, Barcelona could have the chance to sign a right-back. This is because Samuel Umtiti has been released while Clement Lenglet is about to move to Tottenham on a permanent transfer.

The departure of Garcia will give Barcelona enough space to sign a contract to strengthen the defense on the right. Currently, the idea being discussed internally is to have four center-backs – Ronald Araujo, Jules Kounde, Andreas Christensen, and Martínez, two left-backs – Marcos Alonso and Alejandro Balde, and a professional right-back.

So the team explored options to sign either Ivan Fresneda or Joao Cancelo.