Barcelona pay compensation to offload Juan Miranda to Real Betis

Barcelona are expected to pay La Masia graduate left-back Juan Miranda €600,000 in compensation as he leaves the club to join Real Betis on a free transfer.

Miranda spent the 2020/21 season on loan with Betis and will now make that move a permanent one without a transfer fee, while also personally pocketing a substantial lump sum.

Mundo Deportivo writes that Barcelona have opted not to trigger a two-year extension clause in Miranda’s contract that would have pushed its expiration date to 2023. Instead, he becomes a free agent this summer instead and will formally leave the club at the end of June.

However, it is said that one of the clauses in the contract entitles the player to €600,000 worth of compensation in the event that Barcelona do not exercise the option.

That means Barcelona are losing a talented player for no transfer fee and paying out for the privilege, although it is claimed that Betis will allow a sell-on clause in Miranda’s first contract with them, entitling the Catalans to a cut of any deal should he be sold again by 2024.

21-year-old Miranda will have spent seven years on the Barcelona books by the time he leaves Camp Nou at the end of June. He joined La Masia in 2014 at the age of 14, having started his football journey in the youth ranks at Betis, his home town club.

Miranda will play for Spain in the knockout stages of the Under-21 European Championship this summer, having started two of the three group games in the group stage held in March.

There is an argument to suggest that Barcelona should have triggered his contract extension, thereby negating the need to pay compensation, so they could have received a transfer fee. That may have been seen as more costly if they were unable to find a buyer in a depressed market.

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