The Dominik Livakovic file has been running since 19 August without ever quite landing. On Tuesday it landed. According to Mundo Deportivo, the Croatia goalkeeper flies into the city this afternoon, and the Livakovic Barcelona medical is booked for Wednesday, after which he signs for the next four seasons — though MD are careful to add, in the same breath, that whether he stays as Joan García’s deputy this season has not been decided.
That is the part neither report can answer. Here is what this piece covers:
- The timings for Tuesday’s arrival and the Wednesday medical
- The fee Mundo Deportivo report, and the length of the contract
- Why Barcelona moved on a goalkeeper now rather than next summer
- The two versions of where he spends 2026-27, and the condition MD say it depends on
- Where Wojciech Szczęsny and Joan García stand in all of this
How a 2027 signing turned into a 2026 arrival
Barça Universal’s reading of the operation is that it is future planning rather than a last-minute response to an immediate problem. In the piece where they relay SPORT’s account of Tuesday’s arrival, they add, in their own voice, that Barcelona moved early because they did not want to be caught unprepared when Szczęsny’s contract comes to an end, and that Deco and the sporting department see the deal as one for the present and the future at once.
The shape of the goalkeeping department explains why that mattered. Joan García was confirmed as the club’s new No 1 earlier this month and took the 1 shirt in the squad numbers announced at the Gamper; Szczęsny, who moved to the 13, is the cover behind him. Everything in the reporting points at the Pole’s contract as the variable.
We set the file out on 19 August, when the reporting was pulling in three directions at once. Six days on, one of those threads has hardened into a flight time.
Livakovic Barcelona medical: the timings, the fee and the contract
Tuesday afternoon, then Wednesday
Mundo Deportivo’s Roger Torelló reports that Livakovic, 31, arrives this afternoon to formalise his move, and that Cadena SER reported on Tuesday that he lands today, undergoes his medical on Wednesday and signs for the next four seasons. Barça Universal, whose account of the arrival and the medical comes from SPORT, add that he is scheduled to land at around 5.30pm local time at Barcelona’s private flight terminal, with the tests to follow the next day at the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper. Once those are cleared, the remaining details of the transfer can be completed.
Four million euros, and only one year left in Turkey
On the money, Mundo Deportivo, who set out the figures last Friday, report that Barça will pay four million euros to Fenerbahçe — two fixed and two in variables — for a Croatia international who had just one year left on his contract with the Turkish club. Barça Universal’s numbers match: they describe a transfer that is said to have been completed for €2 million with an additional €2 million in add-ons, with the paperwork already signed.
Both accounts, in other words, describe the same package from two directions.
The goalkeeper Barça are buying
Livakovic is Croatia’s first-choice goalkeeper and, per Mundo Deportivo, has until now been playing for Fenerbahçe. He is not a stranger to Spain either: MD note he spent last season on loan at Girona until January, when he left to join Dinamo Zagreb, also on loan, and stood out there.
The two versions of 2026-27 — and the condition MD say it depends on
Here is where it stops being simple. Both outlets agree the signing is happening. Neither can tell you which season it starts.
Mundo Deportivo’s version: Barça initially had it in mind to loan Livakovic to Dinamo Zagreb for this campaign and bring him in properly next summer, once Szczęsny’s contract with Barça is up. But MD add that it is not ruled out that he could stay now as Joan García’s deputy instead.
Which of those happens will depend, Torelló writes, on the “fair play” room left in the squad. If Barcelona have enough salary space, Livakovic becomes part of the Blaugrana squad straight away. If they do not, a loan is found — possibly Dinamo Zagreb, where he was on loan from January — and he would arrive in the summer of 2027 as the second goalkeeper.
Barça Universal’s version, published minutes earlier, runs along a similar line but with a different loan club. In their report, the original plan was to sign him and send him back to Fenerbahçe on loan for a season; the update, which they credit to Què T’hi Jugues, is that Barcelona are now pushing to change the terms and fast-track his arrival, doing away with the loan year entirely because they would prefer to have him in Hansi Flick’s dynamic this season as immediate backup to Joan García.
Two reports, two loan clubs. Què T’hi Jugues, via Barça Universal, have Barcelona pushing to keep him now; Mundo Deportivo go only as far as saying it is not ruled out. Barça Universal’s own later piece, the one relaying SPORT, says simply that his immediate role remains undecided. Treat the destination as unsettled.
The case against: why 2027 is still very much alive
It would be easy to read a private flight terminal and a booked medical as proof that Livakovic will be registered in time for Thursday. That is not settled, and there are three reasons for caution.
The first is Fabrizio Romano. Barça Universal note that Romano, in their words usually ever-reliable, continues to claim that Barcelona’s plan has not changed and that the club will be boosted by Livakovic’s services next summer. Their own piece sets his position against the fast-track claim without resolving it.
The second is the salary room itself. Barcelona are still working on exits — Marc Casadó and Héctor Fort among the names — and until those are resolved, MD’s condition cannot be tested.
The third is simply that the reported plan has already changed once in public this week.
What is not in dispute is the sporting case for going early. Barça Universal describe Szczęsny as a strong backup option who has himself admitted that his body no longer permits him to play regularly, and argue that a single long-term blow to Joan García would leave the team in trouble — the scenario, as they put it, that would worry Flick.
What happens next
The immediate diary is short: Livakovic lands this afternoon and is examined on Wednesday, the day before Barcelona’s first home league game of the season — the rearranged Matchday 1 against Athletic Club at the Spotify Camp Nou on Thursday at 21:00. Neither source has reported him as available for it.
The wider deadline is the end of the market, which Mundo Deportivo have put at 00:00 on Tuesday 1 September. Which of the two versions turns out to be right will not be clear until the exits are resolved and the club know what room they have.
One detail neither outlet has yet reported: a shirt number. The 1 and the 13 are taken in goal, and nothing in Tuesday’s reporting suggests what Livakovic would wear if he is registered now.
The verdict
The Livakovic Barcelona medical is the first hard, dated fact in a file that has been running on competing versions. A four-year contract and a €4m package are reported as agreed, the player is on his way, and the paperwork, per Barça Universal, is signed. What remains open is whether Barcelona have the room to register him now or whether he spends a season elsewhere first — and on that, Què T’hi Jugues and Fabrizio Romano are still not saying the same thing, with Mundo Deportivo declining to call it either way. Nobody should settle this one until the market shuts.
