Six emergency centre-back options on Barcelona shortlist leaked

Barcelona are evaluating their next steps in the transfer market, following a serious injury to Andreas Christensen. The Danish defender is likely to be out for around four months, leaving Hansi Flick with just six defenders for the rest of the season.

The German manager is in favour of bringing in some form of reinforcements though, feeling his squad is already pushed to the limit. Despite this, Director of Football Deco appears to be reluctant to make any moves, feeling that there is no possibility of improving the starting XI. Nevertheless, MD have revealed several alternatives that Barcelona are looking at as potentially cut-price options on short-term deals.

La Liga options

Three options in La Liga are cited; Luiz Felipe at Rayo Vallecano, Diego Llorente at Real Betis, and Juan Foyth at Villarreal. The latter has been linked to the Blaugrana in the past, but has the added advantage of being able to play at right-back too. The 27-year-old remains an important figure at Villarreal and has a deal until 2029, meaning he is unlikely to come cheap.

Felipe has just six months left on his deal, but has struggled for minutes at Rayo. Llorente has also spent more time on the bench this season, and is currently out of action until mid-January.

Options across Europe

Other names that could be options due to their contract situations are Stefan de Vrij at Inter, Marcos Senesi at Bournemouth, Nicolas Otamendi at Benfica, and Diogo Leite at Union Berlin. De Vrij and Otamendi are right-sided options, but comfortable on the left, and both are out of contract in the summer.

The two veterans, 33 and 37, are differing options though. De Vrij could be allowed to leave Inter as he has not featured much this season, while Otamendi remains a key player for Benfica. Leite and Senesi are left-footed options, making them more attractive, and are both out of contract this summer, but are regulars at Bournemouth and Union. Otamendi brings the added ‘advantage’ of being represented by agent Jorge Mendes, who has close ties to Barcelona.

JUST IN: Ronald Araújo will return to training with FC Barcelona on December 29. [@mundodeportivo] pic.twitter.com/UPn0cqXApM

— barcacentre (@barcacentre) December 23, 2025

How much can Barcelona spend?

Barcelona can use La Liga’s emergency injury rule to use 80% of the salary limit space taken by Christensen to register a new player, provided they add the amount to their salary limit next season. That likely frees up somewhere around €4-6.5m for Barcelona to use, if they see fit to do so. That would appear to rule out a move for any of their long-term targets, although their interest in Marc Guehi has been cooled anyway.

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