FC Barcelona faced a major dilemma during the 2024/25 season when club captain Marc-Andre Ter Stegen suffered a long-term injury. The Catalan club had Inaki Pena as the reserve goalkeeper who emerged as the immediate option.
However, Deco moved swiftly to convince Wojciech Szczesny to come out of retirement and join Barcelona as an emergency signing. The Pole arrived at the club immediately but did not play a single minute under the Spanish Super Cup in January.
Meanwhile, Flick continued to place his trust in Pena who kept improving with every passing performance. However, something changed in January and the German coach did not go back to the Spaniard on many occasions once he gave Szczesny his debut.
Inaki Pena has no future at Barcelona
Ever since then, it has been clear that Pena has no future at Barcelona. Now, as per SPORT, Celta Vigo are interested in signing him this summer but will not go ahead with it without the 26-year-old guaranteeing them two conditions.
Vigo want Pena to terminate his contract at Barcelona and come as a free agent this summer. With the Catalan club needing to register Szczesny and new signing Joan Garcia for the new campaign, they might not hesitate to give the 26-year-old the letter of freedom.
The other expectation of Vigo is that Pena considerably lowers his wage demands. Should he meet these two conditions, then they would proceed to try and bring him to the club. It remains to be seen if Barcelona let him go without a transfer fee.
No power in negotiations
Ideally, Barcelona would know that they can get a decent fee for a player with Pena’s ability. However, with a contract until 2026, the club don’t have much power in negotiations and might have to let him go on free to register their priority signings.
It remains to be seen what the future holds for Inaki Pena. The next few weeks should provide further clarity on the situation. Let’s wait and see how things play out.
