Thomas Heurtel has ceased to be a Barcelona player after having reached an agreement with the Barca team for his separation, with which he had a contract this season and an optional following. In his termination agreement, there is an anti-Madrid clause that prevents him from signing for an Endesa League club this season. However, everything points to the French guard signing for the white team next summer.
The Madridistas already tried to take over Heurtel before his controversial abandonment in Istanbul when Barcelona managers learned that the point guard was negotiating with his great rival behind his back. Then, the plan was blown up, but a few months later it can be carried out. According to the journalist Chema de Lucas, there is an agreement already closed so that in summer he signs for a season with an optional one.
The French player would arrive as a star signing in a position that has been very touched since Facundo Campazzo left. The whites lacked the ability to react when the Argentine announced that he would go to the NBA. His refusal to accept the departure of the flagship in recent years and the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus left the base position with Nicolas Laprovittola, who has never been very much to the liking of Pablo Laso, with the young Carlos Alocén and with a Sergio Llull back at the helm after serving as an escort all season. Heurtel is an express wish of Juan Carlos Sánchez, responsible for the basketball section, not so much the coach.
Heurtel’s departure from Barcelona was first announced by Misko Raznatovic, the player’s agent, and minutes later the Barça team ratified it in a brief official statement: “We inform you that FC Barcelona and the player Thomas Heurtel has rescinded, by mutual agreement, the contract that bound them until June 30, 2022, with the 2021/22 season being optional.
In this way, the French base, who was not in the plans of Barca coach Sarunas Jasikevicius, is a free agent but with the condition that he will not play this season in any ACB team. He also has another important handicap: he will not be able to play in the Euroleague, since the deadline to register players transferred between teams in the competition expired on January 6. Barcelona, with the output of the player, saves much of the record of two million annual winnings and will come in handy at a time in which the Catalan club’s coffers are stiff. He already has his replacement, Leo Westermann, and now he is likely to go on the market in search of an inside player.
In addition to Real Madrid, Russian Khimki was also interested in his day to get his services, but the fact of not being able to play the Euroleague put him back as soon as the deadline expired. It will be necessary to see what is its final destination. Heurtel will have to find a way to stay in shape to earn a place in the French team that attends the Tokyo Games, one of his close goals. He has recently been summoned by the French Federation for the next FIBA Windows in February despite not being playing.
