FC Barcelona captain Marc-Andre ter Stegen has agreed to leave the club and once more join another outfit on loan according to SPORT and transfer market expert Fabrizio Romano, citing anonymous sources.
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FC Barcelona captain Marc-Andre ter Stegen has agreed to leave the club and once more join another outfit on loan according to SPORT and transfer market expert Fabrizio Romano, citing anonymous sources.
“Marc Andre ter Stegen opens doors to Ajax move as negotiations are well underway also on player side,” Romano tweeted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“Michel and Jordi Cruyff want MATS as new goalkeeper, deal now on with Barcelona on initial loan.
Salary share key point being discussed,” he added.
At SPORT, though, they say that Ter Stegen is willing to accept an offer from the Eredivisie giants.
Michel is of course the former head coach at Girona. That’s where Ter Stegen spent the second half of last season on loan, in his first move away from FC Barcelona after originally signing in 2014.
Jordi Cruyff is a past director of football at the Spotify Camp Nou, now holding the same function at the Amsterdam club his father Johan made his name for during the 1970s, before joining Barça in a world record transfer.
This means that both men know the German well, and want him to be one of the main protagonists at the Johan Cruyff Arena where the main aim is to return Ajax to the top of Dutch soccer after a fall from grace.
Ter Stegen started well at Girona in a search of first team football, which would’ve been key to forming part of Germany’s World Cup squad.
However after suffering another back injury and a hamstring knock, his 2025/2026 season never got off the ground and he was therefore overlooked by Julian Nagelsmann internationally speaking
There is no way back to FC Barcelona for Ter Stegen
First replaced by loan replacement Wojciech Szczesny in 2024/2025 when initially sidelined for a lengthy period, Ter Stegen has no way back to the Barça fold with Joan Garcia in his way.
Signed from bitter rival Espanyol for a relative pittance considering his $28.5 million (€25 million) release clause, Garcia went onto win La Liga and the Zamora trophy for being Spain’s best goalkeeper in his maiden campaign.
As a consequence, he’s also representing La Roja at the World Cup, with Spain set to face Austria on Thursday.
It’s worth noting that as the newest member of the trio in Luis de la Fuente’s squad, Garcia plays third fiddle to Arsenal’s David Raya and Athletic Club’s Unai Simon.
Were he to stick around in Catalonia, Ter Stegen would face a similar fate down the pecking order. On Hansi Flick’s watch, Szczesny and Garcia are both ahead of the manager’s compatriot.
Because of that, another loan move away makes sense. As is often common with Barça heavyweights past and present looking to play elsewhere on a temporary basis, however, Ter Stegen’s reported $17.1 million (€15 million) salary is currently a spanner in the works that needs to be addressed by the two clubs.
Ajax can’t afford that kind of money, so FC Barcelona will still need to foot a considerable part of the bill.