Barcelona make €7m saving as former player’s unfair dismissal appeal rejected by Supreme Court

Over the last three years, Barcelona have been embroiled in a legal battle with their former player, Matheus Fernandes. The 26-year-old signed in January 2020, but after failing to make any impact in Catalonia, this contract was terminated 18 months later, with the club stating that he did not have “the physical, technical level and attitude to be part of the squad”.

Upon having his contract terminated, Fernandes filed an unfair dismissal lawsuit. He initially claimed €14.8m, and although he did win the initial case, the fee owed was reduced to €7.7m. However, Barcelona appealed the verdict to the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC), and the compensation was lowered down to €731k.

Fernandes demanded more, and he subsequently filed an appeal with the Supreme Court. However, El Confidencial (via MD) say that this has now been rejected, meaning that Barcelona will only be required to pay out the €731k, which is a saving of €7m from the initial case.

There’s no doubt that Barcelona will be delighted with this verdict. Given the club’s severe financial problems, any saving that can be made is good news.

In the early hours of Sunday morning, Dani Carvajal confirmed that he is set to miss the remainder of the season after he suffered an ACL injury in Real Madrid’s 2-0 victory over Villarreal on Saturday.

Carvajal has already receive many, many messages of support, and one of those has come from Joselu Mato, whom he considers to be one of his closest friends in football. The pair were teammates at Real Madrid last season, and they would have been in the Spain squad together during the upcoming international break.

Joselu made his feelings clear in an emotional post on X.

“I write through tears and with the feeling that I would have preferred it to happen to me. Now we have a path ahead of us that I know you will follow admirably, like everything you do. I love you brother, always with you.”

Carvajal’s season-ending absence is a crushing blow for Real Madrid, as it also is for Spain who have now lost two of their most influential players – Rodri Hernandez being the other one – in a matter of weeks.

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