7 former Barcelona players available on a free transfer this summer
Champions League-winning royalty are among the former Barcelona players who look set to become available on the free agent market at the end of the 2024-25 season.
Some familiar faces are turning out in La Liga, Premier League, Serie A and further afield that will have their agents busy sounding out potential suitors for next season and beyond.
Here are seven ex-Barcelona players approaching the end of their contracts.
Nelson Semedo
After getting the runaround by Alphonso Davies in one of his final appearances for Barca, Semedo has rebuilt his reputation. He’s been a solid Premier League full-back over the past five seasons with Wolves.
MLS outfit NYCFC and Saudi Pro League club Al-Khaleej are believed to have made an approach, but the Portugal international is believed to see his future in the European game for now.
“Yes, we’re still in conversations and I think it’s possible,” Semedo recently told reporters over the possibility of an extension at Molineux.
Adama Traore
Fulham signed the uniquely hulking winger on a free contract a couple of years back after Barcelona decided against turning his loan (remember that!?) into a permanent deal. He’s now approaching the end of that initial two-year deal.
He only started a single Premier League game in his debut season at Craven Cottage but he’s played a far more prominent role in 2024-25. It’s starting to look likely he stays, but Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Besiktas are said to be among the clubs monitoring the situation.
A move to the Turkish Super Lig feels inevitable at one point or another. He’s so Turkish Super Lig.
Marcos Alonso
The latest player to represent both Barcelona and Real Madrid, Alonso left Catalonia following two fairly underwhelming seasons.
He remained in La Liga though, having signed a one-year deal with Celta Vigo last summer. Reports from Spain suggest that the veteran has played enough football to trigger a pne-year extension, but that is yet to be officially announced.
Yerry Mina
The experienced Colombia international has been a near ever-present for Cagliari this season, with the club looking safe to extend their stay in Serie A.
He might have played his last game for them, though, having recently suffered a muscular injury that could keep him out for the remainder of the campaign.
Last year he extended for a year after originally arriving on a short-team deal. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see him to do the same for 2025-26.
Pedro
A winner of two trebles during Barcelona’s glory years, Pedro is still going at the age of 37.
After five years with Chelsea, the forward has spent the past five years in the Italian capital – one season with Roma followed by four with their city rivals Lazio.
Opportunities at this veteran stage of his career have been limited, although he did feature prominently in the Biancocelesti’s run to the Europa League quarter-finals and offered a reminder of his existence with both goals in last weekend’s 2-2 draw with Parma.
He’s expressed his desire to keep on playing. Watch this space.
Miralem Pjanic
That whole Pjanic-Arthur business now feels like a fever dream cooked up by the mind of a particularly deranged accountant, doesn’t it?
Far less successful in Spain than he was in Italy, the Bosnian’s stint at the Camp Nou ultimately came and went with little to show for it. After being loaned out to Besiktas, his twilight years have been spent in the United Arab Emirates (Sharjah) and now Russia (CSKA Moscow).
The 35-year-old’s contract with CSKA expires at the end of the season, although there is understood both parties are understood to hold an option to extend if desired.
Lionel Messi
Okay, technically speaking Messi won’t be available on a free transfer this summer.
He’s committed to Inter Miami for the upcoming Club World Cup and the remainder of the 2025 MLS campaign. But like the others on this list he’s out of contract at the end of the season, which in the case of the USA’s soccer calendar is December.
However, all the noises out of Miami suggest that a renewal is practically a formality at this point. Expect an announcement imminently on what ought to be at least a one-year contract extension, taking him up to the age of 39 and the World Cup on US soil.
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