Latest Developments on João Cancelo's Potential Moves to Inter Milan and Barcelona
Undoubtedly, the name that has continuously occupied the core of recent transfer rumors is Portuguese right-back João Cancelo. The coming week will be a crucial period to determine his future destination: Inter Milan's president has publicly confirmed that the team is fully prepared to push the deal forward. It is reported that the Nerazzurri are close to reaching a principled agreement with Al Hilal SFC on the transfer of center-backs Francesco Acerbi or Stefan de Vrij — both experienced defensive players are former teammates familiar to Al Hilal's current head coach Simone Inzaghi during his tenure at Inter Milan. If the deals go through, they will effectively strengthen the defensive depth of the Saudi Arabian club.
However, the core premise of this potential transfer has always revolved around Cancelo's final choice. Over the past three to four days, the player has been patiently waiting for a clear signal from Barcelona, and now the decision-making pressure has completely shifted to the Catalan club. Barcelona's management needs to conduct a comprehensive trade-off from multiple dimensions: first, compliance with Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules, as the club must accurately calculate whether it can accommodate Cancelo's contract within the existing salary structure; second, the allocation of player registration quotas, which requires evaluating whether it complies with relevant regulations of La Liga; finally, judging from a competitive perspective whether the team truly needs to supplement an immediate reinforcement at the right-back position at this stage.
Cancelo's personal wishes have always been clear — he is eager to return to the Camp Nou and regards Barcelona as his preferred destination. Therefore, if Barcelona decides to push forward the transfer after internal evaluation, the Portuguese international will most likely put on the Barcelona jersey again as he wishes and reject Inter Milan's invitation.
But the transfer window will not extend indefinitely. If Barcelona still fails to make a decision or give a positive response in the next few days, Inter Milan is ready to activate a backup plan: the club will hold official negotiations with Cancelo's agent Jorge Mendes and simultaneously finalize the final transaction details with Al Hilal SFC, hoping to quickly complete the player's transfer.
