Balde rethinks Barcelona future as United eye £30m left-back amid Grimaldo and Cucurella warnings

Alejandro Balde is reassessing his future at Barcelona after discussions with his agent Jorge Mendes, raising the prospect of a summer departure from the Catalan club, with Manchester United among those monitoring the 22-year-old left-back.

Barcelona value their academy graduate at around £30m, according to sources in Spain, and have made clear they will not sanction a loan move. United sources have played down their chances of completing a deal this window, but Balde’s apparent change of heart — he had previously been thought intent on staying and proving himself under head coach Hansi Flick — keeps the transfer alive.

The situation has drawn comparisons to two high-profile exits from La Masia that Barcelona supporters still rue. Respected Barcelona-based journalist Dani Senabre, speaking on Spanish radio station COPE, invoked the departures of Alex Grimaldo and Marc Cucurella as cautionary tales in favour of keeping Balde. “It would be bad for me if we ran the risk of what already happened when Grimaldo left or when Cucurella left,” Senabre said. “Which is that in two or three years, Balde triumphs at Manchester United or Benfica, wherever, and you say, we had him here, we let him escape.”

The parallels are pointed. Grimaldo and Cucurella made a combined 146 appearances for Barcelona Atlètic but managed just a single senior outing between them before leaving the club. Cucurella departed for Eibar on loan — eventually signed permanently for around £2m — before a convoluted series of moves led him to Chelsea and then Real Madrid, who paid Chelsea over ten times Getafe’s original £5m fee to sign him this summer. Grimaldo, meanwhile, left for Benfica for just over £1m, made more than 300 appearances for the Lisbon club, and has since joined Atletico Madrid via Bayer Leverkusen.

Balde’s trajectory has been markedly different. He spent just one season with Barca B before impressing in pre-season and establishing himself as the first team’s primary backup to Jordi Alba. He has now made 168 senior appearances for the club. Yet his omission from the squad entirely for Barcelona’s La Liga opener — with Xavi Espart starting at left-back and Joao Cancelo among the substitutes — has added a fresh layer of uncertainty to his situation.

Whether United can turn their interest into a concrete offer, and whether Barcelona’s £30m valuation proves a sticking point, will likely define how this transfer story develops over the coming weeks.