Sport: Cancelo nears €10M return to Barcelona

According to Sport, there's new progress in the deal between Barcelona and Al-Hilal regarding Cancelo.

Al-Hilal announced the new numbers for the 2026/27 season, and Portuguese full-back Cancelo is on the list. If the 32-year-old stays in Saudi Arabia, he will wear number 20, the same number he wore for his national team and when he first joined Al-Hilal.

The deal for Cancelo to join Barcelona is close to being finalized at around 10 million euros. The agreement between the two clubs is almost complete, and his personal agreement with Barcelona was fully reached after last season. Last season, he scored 2 goals and provided 3 assists in 23 appearances, and secured a starting position after Balde suffered a muscle problem.

However, tax details have been delaying the official announcement of this priority transfer. Deco and Flick both value this signing, and the German coach, having coached Cancelo in the latter half of last season, also requested the club to re-sign him.

On the other hand, Al-Hilal does not intend to keep him. The club has already signed Mohammed Mazhari, a player in the same position, for 8 million euros. The Saudi club's sole objective is to recoup their initial investment when they signed Cancelo from Manchester City. Therefore, they are asking for around 10 million euros, and Barcelona is willing to pay this amount for a player who is familiar with the team's environment, understands Flick's tactics, and can play on both flanks. Although the deal is very close, Cancelo returned to Al-Hilal's training ground on August 7th. He had just finished his post-World Cup vacation, after the Portuguese team was eliminated by Spain in the round of 16. After training individually for a few days, he unexpectedly rejoined Inzaghi's squad. Now, Al-Hilal has assigned him the number 20 jersey again. Barcelona still believes that this transfer will be completed before September 1st, and Cancelo will play for the Catalan club for the third time.

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