La Liga giants FC Barcelona are reportedly not interested in bringing French international Samuel Umtiti back from loan.
A Lyon academy graduate, Samuel Umtity made his debut for the French club’s senior team in 2012. He spent four years with Lyon’s senior squad before joining La Liga giants Barcelona in the summer of 2016.
At that time he was one of the best players in the world and quickly became one of the mainstays of the Barça team. He won two La Liga titles with Barcelona and was selected for the French national team. Meanwhile, he was injured before 2018 and then decided against surgery.
Umtiti played in the World Cup and helped France win the tournament. However, after that, his knee injury worsened and he was never the same player again. In recent years, Umr]tity struggled to stay fit and the 28-year-old defender did not play for the Catalan giants.
Barcelona are not interested in bringing Umtiti back.
With Umtiti out of a place in the squad, Barcelona looked to get rid of the defender throughout the summer transfer window.
They were finally able to do so when the defender received an offer from newly promoted Leece from Serie A. Interestingly, Barca even agreed to pay Umtiti’s full salary.
The Frenchman left Barcelona but has not yet played a minute with the Italian club. He has been an unused substitute in Leece’s last six Series A games and no one knows when he will make an appearance.
Now a report from Sport suggests that despite Umtity’s inability to get playing time, Barcelona have no intention of withdrawing him from his loan.
Barcelona is going through some injury problems. Three of their main centre-backs, Ronald Araujo, Andreas Christensen and Jules Kounde, are injured. In addition, his right back Héctor Bellerin is also injured.
However, despite all this, Barcelona do not want to call Umtiti back from Leece. He will surely spend the entire 2022/23 season in Italy. The report further says that he is currently fit but still lacks the pace. Leece will play against Mourinho’s Roma in the match.
If Umtity gets a few minutes and can play even close to his best days, it will be a huge boost for relegation-threatened Leece.
Meanwhile, Barcelona, ​​who are currently top of the La Liga table, will play Celta de Vigo in their next game.
