Another chapter

Good news for Barcelona fans: João Cancelo is back at the club and is set to sign a permanent deal, leaving Al-Hilal to begin his third spell at Barça.

The 32-year-old Portuguese full-back played for the club for six months earlier this year, on loan from Saudi Arabian side Al-Hilal. During that time, he made 23 appearances, scored two goals and provided three assists. His experience and consistency helped the team win the Spanish league title.

With this victory, Cancelo achieved an impressive feat: he became the first player in history to win the domestic league title in four of Europe’s top five leagues.

A career full of honours

Having come through the ranks at Benfica, where he also won four titles with the first team, Cancelo played for Valencia and Inter Milan before moving to Juventus in 2018. In his only season at the Italian club, he won the league title. He then played for Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City for several years, winning three consecutive Premier League titles. During a brief loan spell at Bayern Munich, he also lifted the Bundesliga trophy in 2023.

In 2024, the full-back followed in the footsteps of his national team-mate Cristiano Ronaldo, a five-time Ballon d’Or winner, by moving to Saudi Arabia, where he joined Al-Hilal.

His loan move to Hansi Flick’s Barcelona earlier this year was, in fact, Cancelo’s second spell at the Catalan club. He had previously been on loan at Barça in 2023, whilst still under contract with Manchester City.

In total, Cancelo has won 16 trophies in his career, including Manchester City’s first-ever Champions League title in 2023 and Portugal’s first UEFA Nations League title in 2018–19. In 2022, he was also nominated for the Ballon d’Or.

João Cancelo’s career statistics:

  • 563 appearances

  • 39 goals

  • 16 titles

Deal confirmed

Although his contract with Al-Hilal ran until 2027, Cancelo was so determined to return to Barcelona that he brought forward his departure and waived a large portion of the wages he was due to receive this past season from the Saudi club to facilitate the deal. The situation was also made easier by the fact that the Portuguese player was not part of manager Simone Inzaghi’s plans.

Initially, Barcelona tried to negotiate a new loan deal, but the parties reached an agreement for Cancelo to return on a permanent basis. The Portuguese player will therefore begin his third spell at the Catalan club.\

A summer of changes

Cancelo will be Barcelona’s third major signing in this European summer transfer window, alongside forwards Anthony Gordon, from Newcastle United, and Karim Adeyemi, from Borussia Dortmund.

At the same time, the club has also been letting go of some players who were already part of the squad. Ferran Torres has moved to Paris Saint-Germain, Ansu Fati has transferred to Monaco and Iñaki Peña has joined Panathinaikos. Robert Lewandowski also left the club after his contract expired and joined Chicago Fire, whilst Ronald Araújo has been loaned to Liverpool for the season. Marcus Rashford, meanwhile, has returned to Manchester United following the end of his loan spell at Barça.

On the other hand, Al-Hilal will also need to make moves to compensate for Cancelo’s departure. The Saudi club has already secured some key signings, such as the Dutch winger Crysencio Summerville, who recently arrived from West Ham United.

At full-back, however, Al-Hilal are losing their most experienced and successful player in that position. Even so, the team can count on the experienced French left-back Theo Hernández, as well as several home-grown talents, such as Mohamed Al-Sarnukh, Mohammed Mahzari, Moteb Al-Harbi, Hassan Al-Tambakti and Hamad Al-Yami.

What does the season hold in store for Cancelo and Barça?

We’ll find out soon enough.

João Cancelo’s statistics for Barcelona:

  • 65 appearances

  • 6 goals

  • 1 title