Jeremy Mathieu has become the world’s most expensive defender over the age of 30 by completing his 20 million EUR (Dh98.8m) move from Valencia to Barcelona.
The Frenchman was finally able to make the long anticipated switch when Barca gave way to Valencia’s demands to meet the full buy-out clause, with ¤10m (Dh49.4m) being paid up front and the remaining half to follow in instalments.
Mathieu has signed a four-year deal, which has a buy-out clause of ¤50m (Dh247m) and contains an option for a fifth year.
He turns 31 in October and many fans of the Catalan club are doubting the wisdom of paying such a high fee for a veteran player who only converted from left-back into the centre of defence over the last couple of seasons.
But his physical attributes of pace, height and strength make him the kind of player Barca have been looking for to complement Gerard Pique.
The fact that Mathieu is left-footed is another benefit, providing good balance if he lines up alongside Pique in the centre of defence but also giving new coach Luis Enrique the option of fielding him on the left-hand side of a back three.
The former Toulouse and Sochaux player, who has won just two senior internationals caps for France, will speak in detail about his move at his presentation ceremony, so far restricting himself to a few predictable words about his delight at the transfer.
“Barca are the best club in the world and coming here is a great opportunity for me,” he said. “I’m very proud to be here in Barcelona.
“The club knows how I play and I’m simply here to offer quality.”
It remains to be seen whether Mathieu will be Barca’s last defensive acquisition of the summer, with president Josep Maria Bartomeu having repeatedly stated the club could sign two central defenders before September 1.
Either way, Mathieu has ended a strange sequence by becoming the first centre-back signed by the Blaugrana in five years since the ill-fated arrival of Ukrainian Dmytro Chygrynskiy from Shakhtar Donetsk in the summer of 2009.
Since then, despite the increasing number of physical problems suffered by club captain Carles Puyol, who has now retired, Barca have made do with a number of makeshift options alongside Pique, most notably the conversion of midfielder Javier Mascherano into a centre-back over the past couple of years.
And with Marc Bartra struggling to become a regular after graduating through the club’s youth system, central midfielders Alex Song and Sergio Busquets and full-back Adriano have also occasionally been played out of position to compensate for their team’s lack of central defensive cover.
