Spain's World Cup KO could accelerate Busquets' decision on Barça future

Spain coach Luis Enrique has made it clear that Sergio Busquets still has a future in international football, but the blow of elimination from the World Cup against Morocco could precipitate the farewell to top-level football for one of the best midfielders in history. Busquets will meditate on his future in the coming days and a meeting with Barça is scheduled to define whether he leaves in June or accepts the challenge of renewing for another year.

Barça will respect Busquets' timings. He remains an indispensable footballer for coach Xavi Hernandez. They understand that it must be the player himself who defines what he wants to do because he has earned the right to during his years of excellent performances at the club. At Barça, there was the feeling that if he had an excellent World Cup, the midfielder, with Xavi's OK, could see himself with the strength to continue at the club, but now there are doubts.

Barça will not show him the door, far from it. The coaching staff feel that he is still a useful player, but they want to make it clear that they will not be able to keep his current salary if he stays. Busquets already has big offers from Major League Soccer and is close to moving to the United States.

In any case, Barça need to know his final decision in order to plan for next season as his loss would be big from a sporting point of view. The club would need to sign a player with his characteristics, which is not easy because there are very few options and the ones that exist are expensive. Xavi only sees the Real Sociedad player Zubimendi as his heir but his price is €60 million and the club will not pay that figure. It would be necessary to see if the clause is negotiable.

Busquets's contract expires on June 30 and, in principle, he wants to finish his cycle at the club. Despite that, though, he is comfortable in Xavi's system and it is clear that his role continues to be that of a starter. We will have to see what happens with his future with Spain, too, because it could give clues about a potential departure from Barça.