BARCELONA
Barça admin error jeopardises young star's new contract
The proposal for a new contract for Ilaix Moriba was sent via e-mail to Espanyol by accident as Barcelona looked to secure the canterano's future.
One of the transfer renewals that Barcelona had put to the top of their list of priorities was that of Ilaix Moriba. At 16 years of age, he is considered one of the jewels of Barcelona's academy and the club were keen to tie him down to a new deal with some of Europe's top clubs tracking his progress.
There was a very real fear that the player might have ended up playing in England next season and they wanted to prevent that from happening.
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As negotiations continued, it seemed the two parties had reached agreement. Mundo Deportivo reported that "his renewal is done and in the next few days it will be official. At a meeting at Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper, a contract for the next three years was finalised after months of negotiations."
Happy ending with bizarre twist for Ilaix and Barcelona
It was a happy ending to the story for Barcelona and the player but not one without a bizarre twist. As e-mails were exchanged and details sent from agent to club, someone sent an email to the wrong address and the details were sent to Espanyol's technical secretary, who could not believe what he was seeing.
The issue was solved as Espanyol pointed out the issue to their neighbours but not before Espanyol became privy to the deal's details, which completely amazed them.
Ilaix will miss the remainder of the season with an injury suffered for Spain's under 17s.