Marc Casadó has been training apart from the main group for weeks, and the club now reported to be negotiating his arrival is not the one that led the race on Sunday. The Marc Casado Sunderland file moved on sharply this week: according to Mundo Deportivo, citing The Guardian, Sunderland have burst into the bidding and are said to be negotiating the midfielder’s arrival. Barça Universal, relaying the same reporting, call them a serious contender. Barça value their academy graduate at between €30 million and €40 million.
Here is what this piece covers:
- What Mundo Deportivo and Barça Universal actually report about Sunderland’s move
- Why Hansi Flick’s midfield rebuild pushed Casadó towards the exit
- The €30-40m valuation, and what Barça want to do with the money
- The other clubs still in the race — and the Saudi money he has passed up
- The case for keeping him, which is stronger than the silence suggests
How Casadó ended up training apart from the group
This is not a bolt from the blue. Casadó, 22, has been working away from the main squad for several weeks while, in Barça Universal’s phrasing, Barcelona and his representatives look for a solution before the window shuts. Mundo Deportivo report that he does not figure in Flick’s plans and that his agent, Jorge Mendes, is working the market. Barça Universal go further: he has been told that regular opportunities will be difficult to come by under Flick.
The football reason is not complicated. Barça’s midfield got dramatically more crowded this summer. Rodri arrived from Manchester City on a deal to 2030 and took the No. 16 shirt, and Flick’s assessment of him on club media last week — “I think he’s maybe the best number 6” — tells you where that leaves the club’s other holding options. Add Pedri, Gavi, Dani Olmo, Marc Bernal and Fermín López, plus Frenkie de Jong once he is over the knee injury he picked up at the World Cup, and the midfield is now heavily stocked.
For a 22-year-old with a career to build, that is the whole argument. His preference, per both outlets, is to stay in European football at a high level.
Marc Casado Sunderland: what is actually reported
The move
Sunderland are not new to this story. Mundo Deportivo’s Jordi Batalla, relaying TeamTalk on Sunday, already listed them alongside Aston Villa, Newcastle United and Brighton as clubs in the running, with Nottingham Forest the most interested. What has changed is the verb: they are now said to be negotiating his arrival.
The exact structure of any deal — permanent, loan, obligation — has not been reported, and nobody has put a bid figure on the record. Mundo Deportivo also note that Casadó must settle his next destination within days.
The €30-40m question
Both outlets put Barça’s valuation at €30-40 million, a band that sits around the ~€40m figure Mundo Deportivo attached to him on Sunday. It is a substantial fee for a player who has not been a guaranteed starter, and it reflects his age as much as his minutes.
Mundo Deportivo’s framing of what a sale would buy is specific: it would allow Barcelona to take on other signings and finish defining the squad for the season. That is the point of the exercise, and it is worth keeping in view every time a number gets quoted.
The shirt-number tell
The detail that says the most is administrative. When Barça presented the 2026/27 numbers at the Joan Gamper Trophy, Casadó had the 17 and Anthony Gordon was given the 25, with the expectation that Gordon would move into the 17 once Casadó’s future was settled. That is exactly what happened: since the LaLiga registrations went up, Gordon has the 17 and Casadó has no first-team number at all. Mundo Deportivo repeat the conclusion this week — his goodbye is only a matter of time.
Squad numbers are not contracts, and the club has announced nothing. But the paperwork has already been filed as if the decision were made.
Sunderland are not alone
Nottingham Forest were reported on Sunday to be in front, and that reporting has not been withdrawn. Mundo Deportivo name Aston Villa, Newcastle and Brighton as other clubs said to be linked. Sunderland’s move changes the shape of the race rather than ending it; the reporting frames them as having come in forcefully and opened talks, not as having won.
The one direction the reporting has him turning down is Saudi Arabia. Barça Universal report he has received offers from the Saudi market and is prioritising Europe; Mundo Deportivo, relaying TeamTalk on Sunday, went further and described those Saudi proposals — worth far more in wages — as rejected. For a 22-year-old who wants competitive football, it is a defensible call even though it narrows his options and almost certainly costs him money.
Why Barça need a sale, not just an exit
Casadó’s departure is not an isolated piece of housekeeping. Barça Universal, relaying a report from José Álvarez Haya on El Chiringuito TV, say as many as five players could leave this summer: De Jong, Jules Koundé, Alejandro Balde, Héctor Fort and Casadó. Casadó and Fort are the two furthest down that road — both are already training away from the group — while the club are described as willing to listen on the other three.
The reason for the urgency is the one every Culer already knows. Barça started the season without a recognised centre-forward, and Barça Universal note that bringing one in would require a major financial effort. That is the thread connecting all of it: the sales targets set out in our breakdown of the Casadó, Balde and Fort files, the Fort negotiation, and the striker search that has run through the entire summer.
Fort’s file makes the same point from the other direction. Mundo Deportivo report that Barça value the full-back at €15-20 million with a buy-back on the table — a figure they say could come down if Barcelona keep half his rights or that option for the future — with Borussia Dortmund still best placed and Real Sociedad, per Matteo Moretto via Mundo Deportivo, looking for a formula of their own. Academy player, unresolved structure, a shrinking calendar — the Casadó file reads the same way.
The case for keeping him
It deserves saying, because the club has been fairly quiet about it: selling Casadó is not risk-free. He is a homegrown pivot who has already played in this system, he costs a fraction of what an external replacement would, and he needs no settling-in period. Squads that go deep in three competitions are decided in February and March, not in August, and De Jong’s fitness is not a solved problem.
There is also the La Masia question that follows Barça around. Selling academy midfielders to help fund a centre-forward is defensible business and uncomfortable identity. If the striker signing does not arrive, or arrives and does not work, a €30-40m sale of a 22-year-old the club developed itself will look very different in May than it does in August.
The counter is simply that the player deserves to play and Barça cannot give him that — an argument the reporting implies throughout, though Flick has not made it publicly.
What happens next
Mundo Deportivo report Casadó must decide his next destination in the coming days, which puts it squarely in the closing stretch of the window. Expect the shape of it to be set by three things: whether Sunderland or Forest move first with a formal offer, whether anyone gets close to the €30-40m range, and whether Barça are willing to soften the structure — retained rights, a buy-back — the way Mundo Deportivo say they might for Fort.
Flick, meanwhile, has his first home league game of the season against Athletic Club at the Spotify Camp Nou on Thursday, and a midfield Casadó is no longer training with.
The bottom line
Sunderland are the latest club reported to be negotiating for a Barça academy graduate whose exit the club has effectively already priced. Nothing is signed, no offer has been reported, and Forest, who were reported to be in front on Sunday, have not gone away. But the number is set, the shirt has been handed on, and the player wants to play.
