official: Deco pays €1.5M for the new Robert Lewandowski

Deco has successfully fulfilled the important mission that was entrusted to him several months ago. The team's attacking reference point, Robert Lewandowski, will see his contract expire this very summer and he will not renew it. The Polish player would be delighted to stay one more year at Camp Nou, and he has even proposed lowering his salary to make things easier for the club, but it seems that his future will not change.

In Barça's upper management, they assume that it is a natural ending due to a matter of cycle. Robert Lewandowski has been a striker for the ages, with numbers and authority to support the team in difficult moments. However, at 37 years of age, the club understands that the transition must be made before his performance drops irreversibly.

Deco knows that Flick and Laporta consider that the right time has come to carry out the transition at the tip of the attack. Therefore, in the face of such a scenario, the Portuguese director has been evaluating different options to replace Robert Lewandowski. He has focused on top-level center forwards such as Julián Álvarez and on others who are more unknown such as Etta Eyong, but the chosen one has already been decided.

Only the signature is missing! Deco pays €1.5M for the new Robert Lewandowski

The one who has finally come out on top has been Hamza Abdelkarim. The young Egyptian, only 18 years old, has strongly caught Deco's attention to become Robert Lewandowski's replacement. He has the power to attack space, the intuition to move between center backs, and a competitive mentality that fits what Flick demands without the ball.

So much so that the Barça sporting director has finalized his signing for this very month of January. Yes, Hamza Abdelkarim will arrive in Barcelona on loan at no cost, but with a mandatory purchase clause of €1.5M for the summer of 2026. The structure of the deal is intelligent because it allows the club to evaluate his adaptation to European soccer without committing major resources from day one.

Hamza Abdelkarim promises to bring a lot of joy to Camp Nou

This way, Hamza Abdelkarim will become the first Egyptian to play wearing Barça's jersey. It is a historic element that adds narrative, but the important thing will be the sporting side and the adaptation process. Arriving in Barcelona at 18 years of age implies accepting a cultural, tactical, and mental leap that not everyone manages in the same way.

The idea is that he will first complete this half season with the reserve team and, next season, he will make the jump to the first team. The reserve team is a perfect setting to polish automatisms, gain confidence, and understand what it means to play in a club where every touch and every run into space are scrutinized.

Without a doubt, Deco has completed a very interesting move with the future of FC Barcelona in mind. It is not a signing that promises immediate headlines, but it is an investment with sporting and economic logic. Hamza Abdelkarim is the chosen one to be the new Robert Lewandowski.