Ferran Torres puts out the controversy over the Trump cap and keeps the door open for his departure from Barça: “In football, you never know”

Ferran Torres has returned to New York, the city where just over two weeks ago he made the play of his life, this time for much more down-to-earth reasons: a promotional tour with Under Armour, the brand that sponsors him. But the business trip has also become an exercise in damage control. The forward was forced to explain, via CNN microphone, why he wore a red cap with the slogan “Make Spain Great Again” during the celebrations for the world title in Madrid, an image that had been circulating on social media for days and had led to a political interpretation that he himself, he assures, never sought.

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Torres gave a simple explanation: the cap had nothing to do with Trump or any ideology, but with the desire to see Spain at the very top again. He added, in a lighthearted tone, that he knows very little about politics. The explanation comes, in any case, after the White House shared a video of the footballer wearing the cap and after Trump himself has reused those images on several occasions from his social network. In Spain, the episode also generated a clash of accusations between parties, including information about his real estate business that turned out to be incorrect.

The striking thing is that, while trying to downplay the cap, Torres has not done the same with the other question that followed him at every stop of this tour: that of his future. Asked by NBC, the man from Foyos left the door ajar again. He has a contract with Barcelona until 2027, he said, but in this sport nothing is ever completely written, and he still does not know what he is going to do. It is not the first time he has said this in recent weeks, and each repetition sounds less like a cliché and more like a warning. Asked about PSG’s interest, Torres himself was clear: “Being wanted by these teams is good. I have a contract with Barcelona. It is true that in football you never know what can happen, but the good thing is that since I have a contract, I can wait and decide on my own.” The footballer went further when asked what the club would have to do to keep him: “Show that they want me, that they come to negotiate and in the end it’s all about talking,” he replied, making it clear that the ball, in part, is also in Barça’s court.

The context does not help those words to be read as a simple gesture of caution. Luis Enrique’s PSG has been circling the winger for some time, and Barça are aware that any move in the forward line this summer depends, first and foremost, on knowing what Ferran will do. This was confirmed by Hansi Flick himself on Monday, during the last day of the stage of preseason at St. George’s Park, before the squad set off back to Barcelona: the club knows it needs a forward after Lewandowski’s departure, but the German coach was clear that the operation is conditioned on the Valencian’s decision. Meanwhile, he is managing his own alternatives, Lamine Yamal as a false nine, Gordon or Adeyemi as substitutes, in case the market gets complicated.

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Torres is scheduled to join the blaugrana squad on August 12, as he himself has revealed, so the margin to resolve the unknown is not infinite. Barça, in fact, faces the rest of the summer with that dependence as a backdrop: the club, with Deco at the head of the technical secretariat, still has not closed the signing of a 9, and Flick insists that there are “many options” within the squad if the operation is not closed. Everything also points to the club not making a move in the market until Ferran himself resolves his situation. Added to this is the long-term absence of Frenkie de Jong, although the German coach does not consider it a priority to look for an immediate replacement in midfield.

In short, Barça only lacks one thing to make a move: to know what Ferran wants to do.

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