Barça on alert: Cillessen wants to leave the club this summer

Barça on alert: Cillessen wants to leave the club this summer

Cillessen realizó un buen partido ante el Valencia / | LACOPA

The goalkeeper has offers from all around Europe and his intention is to move this summer in order to be number one elsewhere

This might be the most unexpected exit of the summer: Jasper Cillessen wants to leave Barcelona this summer. The Dutch keeper is very happy and grateful to Barça for the opportunity to play for the club but he has offers on the table from important European sides where he would be their first choice option between the sticks. Cillessen will return to Barcelona next week but the club believes he is now more likely to leave than stay. It remains to be seen if Cillessen will present an offer in writing from one of these teams which will be to Barcelona's liking.

People close to Cillessen are aware that this summer is an important one for goalkeepers with so many sides looking for reinforcements but, at the same time, they know no one is going to deposit his €60m buyout clause. Barcelona signed the keeper for €14m two years ago and understand that their asking price must be reasonable if they are to make a sale. Barça have made it clear that they don't need to sell Cillessen and are very happy with his performances for the club but would be willing to lower their asking price to €30m.

At the moment, Cillessen hasn't made contact with Barcelona about any potential offers, but the club knows he has an offer which would see the stopper earn a lot more money but perhaps isn't in the most popular league. There are teams such as Liverpool and Chelsea, who are yet to make a move, who could be on the look out for a new starting goalkeeper ahead of the 2018/19 season.

Barcelona are only interested in avoiding a long drawn out battle, like what happened with Claudio Bravo, and want to sort out a deal as soon as possible. Next week there will be a meeting and decisions will be made. Barcelona have tried to convince the player to stay but his wish is clear: he wants to leave. Any potential deal needs to be in the club's favour because losing Cillessen would force them into the transfer market to sign a new number two goalkeeper.

At Barça they consider Cillessen the ideal alternative to Marc-Andre ter Stegen. He's always adapted to his role as second choice and when he's been given the opportunity to play he's never let anyone down and shown how good he is. Even the coaches consider him valuable in ter Stegen's improvement in terms of consistency and self belief. The relationship between the two goalkeepers is sensational too, something which can't be said of the German and Bravo during their time together at Barcelona. But at the Camp Nou they understand and respect that a goalkeeper at the level of Cillessen wants to play more often.

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