Barça give up hope of keeping Eric Garcia, who will sign for Manchester City

Barça give up hope of keeping Eric Garcia, who will sign for Manchester City

Eric García, otro talento que se fuga rumbo a la Premier
Eric García, otro talento que se fuga rumbo a la Premier | sport

The centre-back leaves the Catalan club for sporting and financial reasons

Barça will receive around 1.7 million euros in compensation from Man City

Eric Garcia will leave Barcelona to continue his development at Manchester City, as SPORT exclusively confirmed a number of weeks ago. Finally, after months of doubts, the teenage defender and his agents have decided not to accept the offer from the Catalan club to stay. 

Barça have now given up hope of keeping the 16-year-old, who is considered the best central defender in La Masia and one of the most likely to succeed in the future. In the coming days, his move to City will be officially confirmed. 

The departure of Eric Garcia had been a long time coming and is down to both sporting and financial reasons. The club have signed a number of central defenders for the academy, suggesting a lack of belief in the players coming through the other junior teams. In addition, the contract offered by Barça was a long way short of City's proposal. 

As compensation, Barça will receive around 1.7 million euros as a fee for their development of the player. 

Eric is an international at U17 level with Spain and won the European Championships in May, although due to being one of the youngest players on the team his role was testimonial. 

His departure, without doubt, is hammerblow to Barça's cantera, which loses one of its great hopes -- after last week losing Jordi Mboula to Monaco -- for the future in an unexpected fashion