{"id":16118,"date":"2026-01-07T18:34:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T18:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/?p=16118"},"modified":"2026-01-07T18:34:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T18:34:11","slug":"source-barcelona-in-talks-with-al-hilal-over-joao-cancelo-loan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/?p=16118","title":{"rendered":"Source: Barcelona in talks with Al Hilal over Jo\u00e3o Cancelo loan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"article-meta\">\n<ul class=\"authors\">\n<li>Sam Marsden<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>Moises Llorens<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span class=\"timestamp \">Jan 5, 2026, 03:20 PM ET<\/span><\/div>\n<p><a data-clubhouse-guid=\"58f7c4a9-c991-4ed4-fe5c-1f833cba75b8\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/team?id=83\">Barcelona<\/a> are exploring a deal to bring <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"12433baf-649d-7f4f-7233-6db63a5f62f4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/team?id=482\">Portugal<\/a> international <a data-player-guid=\"90ec688a-48b5-314d-fa2d-440ca321560e\" href=\"http:\/\/espn.com\/soccer\/player\/_\/id\/176399\/joao-cancelo\">Jo\u00e3o Cancelo<\/a> back to the club in January, a source has confirmed to ESPN.<\/p>\n<p>Bar\u00e7a have held initial conversations with Cancelo&#8217;s current club, Saudi Arabian side Al Hilal, and also with the player&#8217;s camp after coach Hansi Flick requested defensive reinforcements this month.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"inline editorial float-r\" data-behavior=\"article_related\">\n<h2 class=\"editorial-title\">Editor&#8217;s Picks<\/h2>\n<p>2 Related<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Talks are focused on the financial makeup of the deal, with the LaLiga leaders preferring a loan move for now while paying part of the player&#8217;s salary.<\/p>\n<p>Cancelo, 31, spent the 2023-24 season on loan at Bar\u00e7a from <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"94fd5d7e-35b1-9d52-c9f2-4a37259bea36\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/team?id=382\">Manchester City<\/a>, making 42 appearances in all competitions and scoring four goals.<\/p>\n<p>He later left City for Al Hilal in the summer of 2024, signing a contract with the Saudi club until 2027.<\/p>\n<p>However, the source says Cancelo is open to a return to Europe, with reports suggesting another of his former clubs, the Italian side Inter Milan, are also keen on acquiring his services.<\/p>\n<p>Bar\u00e7a coach Flick said last week he is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/story\/_\/id\/47481071\/hansi-flick-barcelona-need-sign-defender-january\" target=\"_blank\">hopeful of adding another defender<\/a> to the squad in January after losing <a data-player-guid=\"f9784dd4-93a1-0fe8-630c-c6862fb8d977\" href=\"http:\/\/espn.com\/soccer\/player\/_\/id\/186430\/andreas-christensen\">Andreas Christensen<\/a> to an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/story\/_\/id\/47378435\/andreas-christensen-acl-injury-barcelona\" target=\"_blank\">ACL injury for the next four months<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a data-player-guid=\"1110730f-b470-a833-c4e9-ca59b73f5449\" href=\"http:\/\/espn.com\/soccer\/player\/_\/id\/270821\/ronald-araujo\">Ronald Ara\u00fajo<\/a> has also also been out of action since November after taking a mental health break, leaving teenager <a data-player-guid=\"22e26eeb-527d-357c-ab14-848cfd322479\" href=\"http:\/\/espn.com\/soccer\/player\/_\/id\/368992\/pau-cubarsi\">Pau Cubars\u00ed<\/a> and converted left-back <a data-player-guid=\"4004c879-c149-3c51-a23d-75e6a66e664d\" href=\"http:\/\/espn.com\/soccer\/player\/_\/id\/312015\/gerard-martin\">Gerard Mart\u00edn<\/a> as the first-choice centre-back pairing in recent weeks.<\/p>\n<p>Signing Cancelo would add depth in the full-back positions and could potentially allow <a data-player-guid=\"f0ebdbb5-289a-5971-6ce2-99bcf1f56dd3\" href=\"http:\/\/espn.com\/soccer\/player\/_\/id\/231692\/jules-kounde\">Jules Kound\u00e9<\/a>, who has spent most of his Bar\u00e7a career playing at right-back, to return to the middle of the defence, which the Frenchman has said his preferred position.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout his career, Cancelo has played as both a right and left-sided full-back, while he can also play further forward if required.\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/story\/_\/id\/47516174\/barcelona-talks-al-hilal-joao-cancelo-loan\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sam Marsden Moises Llorens Jan 5, 2026, 03:20 PM ET Barcelona are exploring a deal to bring Portugal international Jo\u00e3o Cancelo back to the club in January, a source has confirmed to ESPN. Bar\u00e7a have held initial conversations with Cancelo&#8217;s current club, Saudi Arabian side Al Hilal, and also with the player&#8217;s camp after coach &#8230; <a title=\"Source: Barcelona in talks with Al Hilal over Jo\u00e3o Cancelo loan\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/?p=16118\" aria-label=\"Read more about Source: Barcelona in talks with Al Hilal over Jo\u00e3o Cancelo loan\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16119,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Source-Barcelona-in-talks-with-Al-Hilal-over-Joao-Cancelo.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16118"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16120,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16118\/revisions\/16120"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}