Barcelona to avoid permanent signing in January transfer window

Barcelona are on the hunt for reinforcements during the January transfer window in order to shore up their backline, after losing Andreas Christensen to injury. Down to just six defenders, manager Hansi Flick is keen to sign another defender in order to reduce the strain on an already thin squad.

Christensen’s injury opens up the possibility that Barcelona could activate the emergency injury rule, where La Liga allow a club to use 80% of the salary limit space of a player in order to register a replacement in case of serious injury. The Danish defender’s absence means that Barcelona would be allowed extra space in their salary limit, although they do then have to add this cost to the following season’s salary limit calculations.

Barcelona keen to repeat ‘Rashford formula’

According to Sport, Barcelona have decided that they are not looking for a permanent signing in January, as they browse the market for options. Director of Football Deco has already spoken about the difficulty of finding good value deals in the winter window, and as such, they will seek a loan move. In a similar fashion to the deal that brought Marcus Rashford to Barcelona, the Catalan giants are keen to loan a top player in that is not getting game time at their current club.

It is acknowledged that this is a difficult task, made even more tricky by the decision to only use 40% of what Christensen’s salary rather than the full 80% they could.

🚨 JUST IN: Ronald Araújo, Pedri González and Dani Olmo are training with the group!

— barcacentre (@barcacentre) December 29, 2025

Keen to avoid repeating mistakes

Going further, it is said the club are keen to avoid bringing in someone that does not contribute. The example of Jeison Murillo, who arrived on loan in January of 2019, is given as a player who arrived on loan, but failed to contribute after a €1.2m loan fee.

So far the name of Nathan Ake has been most closely linked with Barcelona, but Manchester City appear to be seeking permanent deal for the Dutchman. Central defence is supposedly a priority for Barcelona in 2026, but it seems they would rather make their move in the summer for a permanent option.