Gabriel Jesus signs for Barcelona on three-year deal

It's the last day of the transfer window, the clock is running down, and Barcelona is still shuffling pieces right up to the wire. There's no calm at the training ground: even as the club made official an arrival few saw coming a month ago, it kept working to close as many as four departures before the window shuts at 11:59 p.m. Spanish time.

Let's start with what's already official. Gabriel Jesus is a new Barcelona player. The 29-year-old Brazilian forward signed a three-year contract after passing his medical, and he'd already been at Camp Nou watching Barca take on Rayo Vallecano live before his official unveiling. He arrives from Arsenal, where he landed in 2022 after six trophy-laden years at Manchester City, and with whom he ended up lifting the Premier League title last season, a triumph that ended a 22-year wait for the Gunners. His signing comes after Deco failed to convince Atletico Madrid to sell Julian Alvarez: Barcelona knew no fresh offer was going to shift the Atletico hierarchy's stance, so the club closed the book on its center-forward search by bringing in the Brazilian as an emergency fix following Robert Lewandowski's departure.

With the goalscoring question settled, at least on paper, the technical staff is now turning its attention to defense. Deco has Ruud Nijstad on his radar, an 18-year-old Dutch center back the club views as a bet on the future. Barcelona has already submitted a first offer to Twente, which was turned down, and while the intention is to keep pushing, the club isn't willing to meet the price being demanded by the Enschede side. The player himself, who renewed his contract with his club through 2029 this very summer, doesn't hide where he'd like to end up:

Playing for Barcelona and forming a center-back partnership with Cubarsi would obviously be the ultimate goal.Ruud Nijstad

Four departures to raise funds

The other front, the outgoing one, involves names straight out of the academy. Marc Casado, cast aside by Hansi Flick, had been linked with several destinations, but it's now Bayer Leverkusen leading the race to sign the Catalan midfielder. The other three cases are already all but settled: Alvaro Cortes traveled to Belgium a few days ago to finalize his move to Royal Antwerp, with Flick even bidding him farewell at a press conference; Toni Fernandez will sign for Italy's Venezia, and his cousin Guille Fernandez has chosen to stay in Spain to play for Mallorca in the second division.

It's a busy deadline day for a Barcelona side that already came off a summer heavy on financial maneuvering, and with Gabriel Jesus now in the fold and Nijstad a possible late-window surprise, the club wants to close the window with a roster as tightly aligned with Flick's needs as possible.