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The long-running Eric Garcia saga appears to be over, with the Manchester City defender set to join Barcelona before the end of the transfer window.
The 20-year old had been heavily linked with a return to the club where he began his career in their academy, but that move had been thrown into doubt after a delay to the club’s presidential elections, with the competing candidates unable to agree on transfer targets.
However, Garcia himself has now precipitated events by offering to go unpaid for the first six months of his contract with his new club.
He will now leave Etihad for a fee of €3 million before the transfer window shuts.
The Spanish defender was out of contract with City in the summer and had turned down the option of extending his stay in Manchester in favour of a return to Catalonia and the chance to play regular first-team football.
Andy is an exiled English football fan living in Cyprus. He loves all sports but football is his abiding passion, and he still has dreams every now and then about scoring the winning goal in a Wembley Cup Final, even though his playing days are long gone. He follows most major leagues, across Europe at least, and has a favoured team in each. When he’s not watching, listening, reading or downloading podcasts about football, he spend his time worrying about his beloved Arsenal.