The Catalan Supreme Court ruled - today, Tuesday - that Barcelona pay about $ 8 million in compensation to Brazilian player Mateus Fernandez due to unfair dismissal, and Barca appealed the ruling directly.
But the same court rejected the 24-year-old's claim for an additional 5 million euros for "moral and reputational damages".
The midfielder joined Barcelona from Palmeiras at the end of the winter transfer window in 2020, and was loaned to Real Valladolid in the same season.
And he appeared once in Barcelona as a substitute against Dynamo Kyiv in the group stage match in the Champions League in 2020.
And in June 2021, that is, 3 months after Juan Laporta returned to the Barcelona presidency, the latter announced the termination of the player’s contract, which extended for 5 years, justifying this step with the player’s poor performance.
The judge rejected this argument, saying that the club did not provide "evidence of the player's poor performance".
The judge added that there is no record in the Catalan club warning the player and asking him to "improve his performance" before dismissing him.
The judge said that "the real reason for the termination was the decision of the work to dispense with one of the players and not to keep him in the payroll signed by the previous board."
And in August 2021, Laporta announced that a financial review of the club showed that Barcelona faced debts estimated at one billion and 350 million euros.
The club moved to reduce its salary bill to avoid violating La Liga's salary rules.
They allowed Lionel Messi to leave for Paris Saint-Germain in 2021, because they could not keep the Argentine star even on a reduced salary.
Fernandez returned to Palmeiras, who loaned him to more than one club.