Girona refuse to rule out shock move for Barcelona´s Umtiti

Barcelona’s Samuel Umtiti could be set for a shock move to Girona, with the newly promoted LaLiga outfit refusing to rule out signing the defender.

Umtiti, a 2018 World Cup winner with France, joined Barcelona from Lyon in 2016 and was originally a first-team regular, but the 28-year-old has been continually linked with an exit after suffering a spate of injuries over the last few seasons.

He played just one league game last term as Xavi led Barcelona to second place in LaLiga after taking over from Ronald Koeman, having made a total of 40 such appearances across the three previous campaigns combined.

Amid Barcelona’s financial woes, Umtiti agreed a three-year contract extension containing a salary reduction in January, allowing the Catalan giants to meet their league-imposed salary cap and register new attacker Ferran Torres.

But with Barcelona now looking to offload players in order to fund a move for wantaway Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski, Umtiti has been linked with another Catalan outfit in Girona.

And Pere Guardiola, brother of Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola and president of Girona’s board of directors, told Spanish radio station Cadena SER that such a move cannot be ruled out.

“We aren’t ruling out Umtiti signing for Girona,” he admitted. “[But] for these things, speak to [sporting director] Quique Carcel and [head coach] Michel.”