BARCELONA have just TEN DAYS to register new signing Jules Kounde or face seeing him leave on a FREE.
The 23-year-old Spaniard joined the Catalan giants at the end of last month after Sevilla agreed to a transfer worth up to £46million.
But Barcelona’s perilous financial situation has left them struggling to register their new signings.
Last week, Xavi’s men did finally register four of their latest acquisitions in Robert Lewandowski, Franck Kessie, Raphinha and Andreas Christensen.
But Kounde was not included in that group and has been made to wait while Barca attempt to raise funds.
Now it has been confirmed that he will NOT be eligible to play against Real Sociedad on Sunday evening.
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That is because LaLiga require the club to balance their books before Kounde can be registered.
Barca had hoped the sale of Memphis Depay to Juventus would go some way to achieving this.
However, talks have stalled about the potential transfer of the Dutch forward.
And Sport are reporting that the departure of Depay alone would still not be sufficient enough to see Kounde registered.
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If he is not registered before the transfer window closes on September 1 then he will technically be able to join another club for nothing.
This could open the door to Chelsea who had been monitoring Kounde all summer.
Thomas Tuchel’s men ended up missing out on the Sevilla centre-back, but may be interested in a second opportunity should Barca fail to get their finances in order.
The Blues are also chasing Leicester ace Wesley Fofana and Manchester United captain Harry Maguire.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
