Barça does not avoid the precariousness of women’s football either

BarcelonaBarça Women’s is improving the contracts of the first team squad to ensure the continuity of the cornerstones of their project. In recent weeks, he has announced the renewals of Irene Paredes, Fridolina Rolfö, Ingrid Engen and Caroline Graham Hansen, who ended their ties with the Barça club on June 30. In this way, right now there are only three players from the team coached by Jonatan Giráldez whose contracts expire at the end of this season: Cata Coll, Bruna Vilamala and Claudia Pina. As ARA has been able to learn from sources in the negotiations, there will be new developments in this regard in the coming days.

The Barça women’s wage bill for the 2022-2023 academic year is around 7 million euros. But just as the contracts of the first team are in line with Barça’s strong commitment to women’s football for years, the same does not happen with those of the youth team. This newspaper has been informed that Barça B players without a presence in the first team earn less than 7,000 euros per year. On the other hand, footballers such as 16-year-old midfielder Vicky López, who arrived this past summer with the aim of becoming an important part of Barça’s future, have personalized contracts that significantly increase their salary compared to the average subsidiary On January 25, Vicky López became the youngest goalscorer in the professional history of the Blaugrana first team at 16 years, 5 months and 27 days.

Another future investment that the Catalan club has made is that of the 16-year-old Italian midfielder Giulia Dragoni, who arrived on Tuesday from Inter Milan, a team with which she already made her debut in Serie A. Dragoni , who will currently play with Barça B, will become the first foreign footballer resident at La Masia. Aside from mainstays like the two of them, the other players who overcome the barrier of 7,000 euros per year are those who make their debut or are called up regularly with the first team, who receive an extra agreed with the club. Some cases are that of defender Martina Fernández and those of midfielders María Pérez and Alba Caño.

Problems to reach the end of the month

Barça B, coached by Óscar Belis, currently occupies fourth position in the classification of the First Federation, the Second Women’s Division of state football. After 17 games, they have 31 points and are only four behind the leader, Deportivo de la Coruña. As in the highest division, Finetwork Liga F, there is an agreement that sets the minimum salary at 16,000 euros per year (there are open negotiations to increase it), this minimum does not exist in the First Federation.

“There are players from the subsidiary who have had problems making it to the end of the month,” says a representative with a link to the Barça women’s team. “The salaries of Barça B players are very low. Especially, taking into account the numbers that are now moving to the first team”, says a person with first-hand knowledge of the contracts of the subsidiary and the first team. On the other hand, another agent with a relationship with the Catalan entity thinks that he “finds it good” these figures “because it is a way to make female footballers grow little by little and not create toxic egos like in men’s football”.

The comparison with the male planter

The salaries of the men’s Barça B team (now called Barça Atlètic) are much higher than those of the women’s subsidiary, despite the fact that they have been reduced recently due to the problems of the entity chaired by Joan Laporta with the fair play finance of LaLiga. As reported by the program What are you playing with? from SER Catalunya, youth players who join Barça Atlètic from the youth system and new signings have an established figure of 100,000 euros per year plus a bonus of 20,000 euros if they reach 20 games played per season. As for youth salaries, they are between 50,000 and 80,000 euros per year. There is only one exception: the big bet of the future for the men’s first team, Lamine Yamal.