Barcelona Sue Teenager for £2.2 million

By: Daryl | October 14th, 2007

Fran Merida sued by Barca Barcelona trainee Cesc Fàbregas left to join Arsenal when he was 16, and Arsenal only had to pay £700,000 in compensation. Now if Barcelona want to buy the midfielder back it’s going to cost them a fortune. Which is why they’ve put up a fight over Fran Mérida.

The midfielder also joined Arsenal from Barcelona when he was 16, models himself on Fàbregas and was even given Fàbregas’ old room when arrived in North London. The big difference is that unlike Fàbregas, Mérida had signed a pre-contract agreement with Barcelona when he was 14, essentially agreeing to sign professional forms when he was old enough. But a 16 year old Mérida hightailed it to Arsenal instead, so the Catalan club have successfully sued the now 17 year old for £2.2 million in a civil case.

That’s a lot of money for anyone. Certainly it would have ruined me at 17, but it’s even a lot for a young professional footballer. Luckily for Mérida, Arsenal have agreed to cover the costs. So even though they signed him on a free and are cleared of any wrongdoing, the club has essentially paid £2.2 million for the lad.

I’m sure Barca don’t want to be suing teenagers for vast sums of money, but it seems to be their only course of action if clubs like Arsenal are snapping up technically unattached teenagers for no money. Barca are apparently about to follow a similar course of action against Daniel Pacheco, who signed for Liverpool this summer. So Pacheco better start saving up his pocket money, just in case Liverpool refuse to cover his legal costs.

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Category: English Premier League, Spain La Liga, World Football

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Free Bet Man

Shouldn't there be pressure put on FIFA to introduce such rules to protect clubs from having their youngest talents taken away on the cheap, no matter how big the club's are.
Why should they have to wait for a player to turn 16 if they know they have a gem amongst their ranks?
b-man

I was very shocked when first reading about this a few days ago. I was shocked as I thought that Fran Merida might have to pay the money himself, however honourable Arsenal have given Merida the money to pay. I think this is good fo Arsenal in many ways. The first thing is that I wouldn't be surprised that if one day they get £20million plus for him, so that would pay off the £2.2mil that they've paid. The second thing is that I believe Merida may feel greater loyalty towards Arsenal after this, due to the fact that they helped him out financially.
Jan

>there are legal processes to be followed in the talent plundering

Yes, in this case, not so much in general. Since the FIFA doesn't allow underaged players to sign professional contracts with a club, it's quite easy to get those talents for free and without breaching any laws. I'm not sure whether pre-contract agreements with underaged players would be allowed in all countries either.
Linda

Ah, but Jan, there are legal processes to be followed in the talent plundering. Merida's case is especially severe because he actually lied to the guys in charge of his youth team to get himself some days off a little while before his 16th birthday and then essentially ran away. Insane, but true.
Jan

The big clubs have been stealing young talents wherever they spot them in general. It's just fair to see those clubs now also stealing them from each other. This way they get to taste a dose of their own medicine.
Chris Murphy

Good for them. Barcelona has been getting it's players stolen by cheap British clubs for too long.
Free Bet Man

This could well be the case which sets a precedent for many other cases around the World and in theory protects clubs over some of their most talented youngsters.
There is a problem with this process however, if Merida is as talented as the hype suggests, the £2.2 million Barcelona have received from the law-suit could be insignificant compared with any future transfer fee Arsenal could demand for the midfielder.