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The 26-year-old Spanish goalkeeper Inaki Pena has been part of Barcelona since the age of 13 in their youth academy. He made his senior debut in the first team as a reserve player in 2018. He primarily used to serve as a backup goalkeeper in the squad behind Ter Stegen, but in the 2022 January transfer window, he was loaned out to Galatasaray where he spent the rest of the season. He then returned to Barcelona as their previous manager Xavi counted on him and signed a contract extension at the club till the year 2026.
According to latest developments, Pena is expected to leave his boyhood club and look for other options ahead of the upcoming season. Barcelona have recently made a new signing of Joan Garcia from Espanyol,who will play a big part in the upcoming season. The La liga champions have also extended their contract with Wojciech Szczesny until the year 2027 who was their starting goalkeeper in the previous campaign. With this, Inaki Pena is most likely to be the one not in the plans of the new manager Hansi Flick, which is why he is expected to leave the club before the start of the new season.
Inaki Pena on a search of a new club: Reports
Inaki Pena is expected to continue to train with Barcelona during their pre-season training, which will take place from next week, till the time he is able to find a new team for himself. The Spanish goalkeeper has one more year of contract remaining at FC Barcelona but is unhappy with the lack of game time. If he continues to stay at Barcelona, he is probably not going to get game time at all, which is why he is looking for options before Barca start their pre-season matches.
Several reports suggest that teams like Real Betis and Valencia have expressed their interest to Barcelona about Inaki Pena. Barcelona will be looking forward to a deal if the teams can meet their evaluation of Pena. If no deal is made soon, Pena will possibly have to mutually terminate the contract.
