Carles Alena signs for Getafe, leaves FC Barcelona

The midfielder made 43 appearances in a Barca shirt, scoring three goals. Alena made his Barca debut in the 2016/17 season in a Copa del Rey game against Hercules in which he scored the only goal of the game in the 1-0 win.

After a spell in which he bounced between the first team and the B team, in the 2018/19 season he became a first-team player. The following season in the winter transfer market he moved to Real Betis where he made 19 appearances scoring one goal. After playing half the season with Barca in the 2020/21 campaign, in January 2021 he moved to Getafe on loan. Notably, Barca is currently going through a financial predicament. The club's star player Lionel Messi became a free agent on July 1 after his contract with FCB expired, but the club has still not given up on giving him a two-year deal. Messi's last contract was worth more than EUR500 million over four years, including signing-on fees, bonuses, and his weekly salary.

The Camp Nou team is unable to register any of the players they have signed this summer because of the salary limit imposed on the club which is stopping them from confirming a deal for Messi, as per Goal.com. Barca's salary cap before the pandemic was over EUR600m, and it has dropped to EUR347m this year.