For Barcelona supporters, this narrative is painfully familiar. PSG have a history of targeting Barcelona’s youth ranks, similarly poaching Xavi Simons from the youth academy in 2019, as well as the world-record seizure of Neymar which fundamentally altered the transfer market.
The €8.2m fee represents a significant outlay for a player with only a handful of senior appearances, highlighting how highly rated Fernandez is by the recruitment team at the Parc des Princes. For PSG, securing a talent who has already tasted Champions League football and held his own in La Liga is a major coup, fitting their recent strategy of recruiting elite young talent rather than just established superstars.
Conversely, for Barcelona, the fee offers little consolation. While the club’s financial difficulties are well-documented, losing a homegrown talent who was already contributing to the first team for a relatively modest sum is a sporting blow that money cannot immediately fix.
"As a coach, what we do is give confidence to the players," Hansi Flick said when reports of a possible move first emerged last week. "You try to believe in them so that they grow. I also know that there are people around him. I want to wait for this to be a thing of the past. If he decides to change clubs, then we will deal with it. Now is not the time."